Shiruko - sweet red bean soup

Azuki bean paste is thinned with water, sugar is added, and the mixture is boiled, with mochi (rice cake) or shiratama (rice flour dumplings) placed in the soup. In a broad sense, it is a type of an-mochi. The origin of the word "shiruko" is "an-shiruko (ko) mochi," which is also called "shiruko," but originally the fruit placed in the soup was called "shiru no ko" or "shiruko." It is believed that the modern-day "shiruko" became limited to this form after the Edo period, when sugar became plentiful. Another theory is that it is called "shiruko" because azuki bean paste (nama-an, which has had the water drained off and is in a kneaded powder state) is dissolved in water.

It is believed that sweet red bean soup became a food for the common people after the Meiwa period (1764-1772), as the Meiwa-shi records that "recently it has been sold at sweet red bean soup shops," and the Morisada Manko notes that several types of sweet red bean soup were available. Meanwhile, sweet red bean soup vendors had been around for a while, but they were priced at 16 mon per bowl, the same as Yotaka soba. Salesmen with shipping boxes hanging on the front and back of a balance scale and red lanterns would call out "Shiratama oshiruko," "Oshiruko with mochi (rice cakes) for New Year's," and so on. Most were sold at night, and many sweet red bean soup vendors had "New Year's shop" written on their lanterns, so they were also called New Year's shops. Street stalls continued to sell sweet soup until the end of the Edo period, but in the early Meiji period, beef stew restaurants, Western food restaurants, and other storefront sweet soup shops were considered the "latest trends," and street selling fell out of fashion. Long-established sweet soup shops that remain today include Wakamatsu in Ginza, Tokyo, and Umezono in Asakusa.

The name for sweet red bean soup is in the Kanto region, while in the Kansai region it is called zenzai. In the Kanto region, sweet red bean soup made with a thin paste that can be slurped is called shiruko, that with crushed bean paste is called inaka shiruko, and that which is thick enough to stand up your chopsticks in is called zenzai. In the Kansai region, sweet red bean soup made with sweet red bean paste is called shiruko or zenzai with sweet red bean paste. High-class sweet red bean soup includes gozen shiruko, which uses high-grade sweet bean paste, ogura shiruko, which uses candied dainagon azuki beans or white kidney beans in the sweet bean paste, and okina shiruko, which uses white bean paste and gyuhi mochi. An instant type is pocket sweet red bean soup.

[Fumio Sawa]

Source: Shogakukan Encyclopedia Nipponica About Encyclopedia Nipponica Information | Legend

アズキの漉し餡(こしあん)を水でのばし、砂糖を加えて煮立て、汁の中に餅(もち)または白玉の団子を入れたもの。広義には餡餅の一種。汁粉の語源は餡汁粉（子）餅で、その略が汁粉ともいわれるが、本来は汁の中に入れる実を汁の子、汁子と称した。今日的な汁粉に限定されるのは、砂糖の潤沢になった江戸時代以降とされる。またアズキの生餡(なまあん)（水を切った生餡は粉をこねた状態である）を水に溶くから汁粉とする説もある。

　汁粉が庶民の食物となるのは明和(めいわ)年間（1764～1772）以降とみられ、『明和誌』に「近頃(ちかごろ)汁粉見世にて商う」と記され、『守貞漫稿(もりさだまんこう)』には汁粉の種類も数品用意されていたとある。一方、振売りの汁粉屋はそれ以前から往来していたが、値は夜鷹(よたか)そば並みの1杯16文であった。天秤(てんびん)の前後に荷箱をかけ、赤行灯(あんどん)をつるした職人の売り声は、「白玉ァおしるこゥ」「お正月やァ（餅入りの意）おしるこゥ」であった。多くは夜売りで、行灯に正月屋と書き込む汁粉屋が多かったことから、正月屋ともよばれた。屋台売りは幕末まで続いたが、明治初期になると「近頃のはやりもの」として、牛鍋(ぎゅうなべ)屋、洋食屋とともに店売りの汁粉屋があげられ、振売りは廃れていった。いまに残る汁粉屋の老舗(しにせ)には、東京・銀座の若松や浅草の梅園などがある。

　汁粉の呼称は関東で、関西では善哉(ぜんざい)という。関東では、すする程度の漉し餡仕立てが汁粉、つぶし餡の入ったものは田舎(いなか)汁粉、箸(はし)が立つほど濃いものは善哉である。また関西でも、漉し餡仕立ては汁粉、または漉し餡の善哉と称した。高級汁粉では、上漉し餡を使った御膳(ごぜん)汁粉、大納言(だいなごん)アズキの蜜(みつ)漬けや白インゲンを漉し餡に入れた小倉(おぐら)汁粉、白餡に求肥(ぎゅうひ)餅を入れた翁(おきな)汁粉がある。即席物では懐中汁粉がある。

［沢　史生］

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