Boushi pan

What is Boushipan?

Boushi pan

Boushi pan (hat bread, boshi bread, boshi pan) is a local bread of Kochi Prefecture.

It is a round bread with a raised center in the shape of a hat. Boushi” means ‘hat’ in Japanese, and ‘pan’ means ”bread.　
It is one of the sweet breads. It is a specialty bread born in Kochi and is a local delicacy of Kochi.

In the mid-1950s, a long-established bread manufacturer in Kochi, “Nagano Asahido Honten”, invented a baked product by combining sponge cake dough with round bread dough, based on melon bread (*).
(*Another theory is that it is said to have originated from a “mistake” made during the production of melon bread, when the dough was fermenting, the cookie dough was mistakenly forgotten to be placed on top, and when it was baked afterwards, the cookie dough was placed on top and baked, resulting in a bread that looked like a hat figure.)

The bread was initially sold under the name “castella bread,” but its shape, which resembles a hat with a widened brim, gradually earned it the nickname “hat bread,” and it gradually became popular due to its familiar taste and shape. It has even become a citizen’s food of Kochi Prefecture.

Today, in addition to being sold at bakeries in the prefecture, “boshi-ban” produced by several manufacturers are sold at supermarkets, convenience stores, and roadside stations.

There are some differences in appearance and taste, ranging from simple plain ones to those with strawberry jam, cream (cream boshi), azuki bean or ogura bean paste, chocolate chip topping, caramel flavor, apple custard & whipped cream, brown sugar, green tea, and cocoa.

Among the various hat pans are “boushi pan” that are large enough to actually wear. There is also a product called “Boushi no mimi” (hat brim), which is only the brim part of the boushi pan.