Tanakaya Honten “Sasa Dango”

Peel back the bamboo leaves and you’ll catch that clean, grassy mugwort aroma before the first bite. Sasa dango are steamed rice cakes made with mugwort (yomogi) dough wrapped around sweet red bean paste, then bundled in bamboo leaves. Eaten for Approx. 500 years, they’re a Niigata soul food said to have been carried by the Warring States-era warlord Uesugi Kenshin on military campaigns.

Founded in the early Showa period, Tanakaya Honten is a long-established shop that produces and sells Japanese sweets and onigiri, beloved by Niigata locals as “Tanakaya, the dango shop.” Their sasa dango—made with carefully selected ingredients such as quality Niigata-grown rice, Hokkaido azuki beans, and mugwort primarily from Niigata—are the shop’s signature item and hugely popular. There are five varieties in total, including rustic, old-fashioned chunky red bean paste (tsubuan) that tastes wonderfully traditional, smooth red bean paste (koshian) with a refined sweetness, and options made with Niigata’s specialty Kurosaki chadamame. If you’re not into sweets, try the savory sasa dango, filled with sweet-and-salty simmered kinpira burdock or arame seaweed.

You can buy them through the online shop or at 10 directly operated stores around Niigata City. They’re typically sold per bag (5 pieces), though some locations also sell them individually. Some stores require advance reservations for any flavors other than tsubuan and koshian, so it’s worth checking with the shop before you visit. At Minato Kobo, a store attached to the factory, you can also tour the production process and enjoy a hands-on sasa dango-making experience.