According to the Tokyo Wagashi Association, the history of traditional Japanese confectionery stretches back more than two thousand years when a few sweet-toothed inhabitants of ancient Japan first began making the earliest versions of treats like dango (rice flour dumplings) and mochi.

Juxtaposed against that lineage, anmitsu is barely out of kindergarten.

Born in 1930 in the early days of the Showa Era (1926-89), the dessert was created by Hanjiro Mori, second-generation owner of Wakamatsu, a wagashi shop in Tokyo’s Ginza neighborhood. After hearing from customers who wanted something sweeter than his usual shiruko (sweet red bean soup) and mitsumame, a dessert made from a mix of cubes of kanten (agar jelly), gyūhi (soft glutinous rice dumplings), boiled aka-endōmame (red peas) and kuromitsu (brown sugar syrup), Mori responded by taking his mitsumame recipe and adding a healthy dollop of ____anko____ (adzuki bean paste).