
Shinri Tezuka
The Japanese have a name for everything! Amezaiku is ancient Japanese art of realistic animal lollipops. Yep, that’s a thing, and they’re glorious!
One of the acknowledged (living) masters of the art is 26-year-old Shinri Tezuka, owner of the Ameshin confectionery in Japan. Thanks to an English version of his website, I learned that the stunning sweets are created by heating candy to around 90° C (194° F). The heated candy is then quickly worked into shape, typically using only the artist’s bare hands and traditional Japanese scissors. The art form is believed to have been brought over to Japan from China in the 8th century. The beautiful confections could be purchased on the street and were then offered at temples or given as gifts, traditions which continue today. Tezuka has added some artistic details in food coloring to make his creations even more realistic than his predecessors’. Take a look!
All images property of Shinri Tezuka.
August 3, 2016 at 6:12 am
Just Wow!
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August 3, 2016 at 6:59 am
They really are something, aren’t they?
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August 3, 2016 at 6:19 am
Sweet!
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August 3, 2016 at 6:59 am
I see what you did there!
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August 3, 2016 at 7:42 am
Gorgeous! We were stationed in Japan twice and we used to love to go to the ramen shops. In the window of each shop was a life-sized replica of each menu item, made out of some kind of composite. It was great for us because we could not read Japanese and all we had to do was point. And yes, the food ALWAYS looked exactly like the one in the window. It was always fascinating to go to Japanese shops and see the level of detail they used on even the smallest items.
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August 3, 2016 at 8:25 am
It’s a remarkable culture. Having something to point to is good, but I would have panicked moving to a place where I didn’t speak the language!
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August 3, 2016 at 8:32 am
Mark and I met in Crete, Greece. We didn’t speak the language there, either. We would go to the open air market and if we could not find what we needed, then we usually played a nonsensical game of charades with the Greek vendors to try and explain what we were looking for. The best one was when we were looking for a colander. It took about 25 minutes, and we both nearly busted a gut laughing, but we did leave that day with a colander…and a kilo of pistachios, YUM!
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August 3, 2016 at 12:14 pm
What a great story! How on earth would you communicate colander? I never thought of that.
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August 3, 2016 at 3:01 pm
There are many confections I look at and think that I could never eat that because it is a work of art and I could not stand to destroy it but then ultimately I know I would because I am a wee sweet toothed porker but these I truly think I could not stand to eat. I cannot imagine the skill level required to produce these. I am blown away.
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August 3, 2016 at 3:46 pm
Wee sweet toothed porker unite! I’m not sure I could eat them, either.
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August 4, 2016 at 2:28 pm
I wonder what they cost and what they taste like. Gorgeous!
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August 4, 2016 at 7:20 pm
I wondered the same. I remember as a child falling for the most beautiful sweets whenever we were on vacation (the only time we’d enter a candy store). I also remember being disappointed with the fact that they never tasted like anything at all. Hopefully, these taste better, but since they evolved as temple offerings, maybe not.
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