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I’m Sara, a Japanese American from California.
Growing up in a very diverse environment, I was always aware of different cultural backgrounds. I spent much of my teenage years desperately wanting to explore my native culture by living in Japan first-hand.
After graduating from a university in California, having studied sculpture, I found myself constantly searching for something to create. Without the convenience of space and machinery, I quickly turned to my life-long hobby of cooking.
It took several more years for me to finally make the move to Tokyo where I stumbled across a wagashi class in my neighborhood. I instantly fell in love with the sculptural aspect of creating wagashi from scratch. Over the years, I learned about how a single wagashi tells stories, explores landscapes and welcomes the seasons to come. In short, it encapsulated everything I held dear to my heart; cooking (eating), creating (sculpting), nature and tradition.
I eventually enrolled into Ecole de Patisserie de Tokyo, one of the oldest confectionary schools in Japan and properly studied wagashi.
I named this project LaWagashi for a few reasons. La as in L.A. (I’m from Los Angeles) La as in the feminine of “the” in French. Wagashi is a masculin word: le wagashi. It is a male dominated industry like many traditional industries in Japan. Times are changing though and there are more and more women taking important roles. This is just a small way to honor those women. In Japanese there is no distinction between ra and la, so “la” is phonetically half of my name (Sara). La is written “ら” and I adore this letter for its perfect blend of soft and sharp lines, similar to how lines are made in wagashi.
The world of wagashi is filled with surprises and discoveries. My hope is to inform you about wagashi and share its beauty so that when the opportunity rises you will take a bite and enjoy the flavors as well as its stories.