Kinton

Kinton is made by pressing bean paste through a sieve to form fine, crumbly strands (soboro), then planting them one by one with chopsticks around a ball of bean paste at the core. Its hallmark is a soft, airy texture.

The interesting thing is that, although the shape hardly changes, the season can be expressed by the combination of colors alone. Green and pale pink for the hills in spring, red and yellow for mountains in autumn leaves, white for a snowy landscape. Add a poetic name (kamei), and it becomes a single scene.

Note that this is a different thing from kuri-kinton, the sweet chestnut dish of Japanese New Year cuisine.