Harikoshi Manju

What is Harikoshi Manju?

Harikoshi Manju (梁越まんじゅう, はりこしまんじゅう) is,

A type of baked rice cake made from buckwheat flour, mainly eaten in the Saku and Komoro areas of Nagano Prefecture. Local food. It is said to be a speciality of Kawakami village, Minami-saku County.

It is also called simply ‘harikoshi’, as well as ‘harikoshi soba manju’ or ‘harikoshi soba’.

It is made by kneading buckwheat flour in lukewarm water, adding Japanese leeks and ginger, and seasoning with miso.

The name ‘Hari-koshi’ is said to come from the fact that the buckwheat flour dough (Soba-gaki) is placed in a bowl and kneaded so high that it goes over (-Koshi) the beams of the house (Hari-).

The buckwheat noodles are grilled on the edge of the hearth or buried in the ashes, and served with sesame soy sauce or sweet miso paste.

The Shinshu-born writer Shimazaki Toson, in his ‘Sketches of the Chikuma River / No.6: One Night in a Mountain Village’,
– You have not yet eaten something called ‘harikoshi’. You have probably never even heard of its name. It is a buckwheat noodle cake baked in hot ashes…’.-