is a traditional

Japan Japan is an island country in East Asia. Located in the Pacific Ocean off the northeast coast of the Asia, Asian mainland, it is bordered on the west by the Sea of Japan and extends from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north to the East China Sea ...

ese

snack food A snack is a small portion of Human food, food generally Eating, eaten between meals. Snacks come in a variety of forms including Food packaging, packaged snack foods and other processed foods, as well as items made from fresh ingredients at ho ...

. Sweet and

deep-fried Deep frying (also referred to as deep fat frying) is a cooking method in which food is submerged in hot fat, traditionally lard but today most commonly oil, as opposed to the shallow frying used in conventional frying done in a frying pan. N ...

, it is made primarily of

flour Flour is a powder made by Mill (grinding), grinding raw grains, List of root vegetables, roots, beans, Nut (fruit), nuts, or seeds. Flours are used to make many different foods. Cereal flour, particularly wheat flour, is the main ingredie ...

yeast Yeasts are eukaryotic, single-celled microorganisms classified as members of the fungus kingdom (biology), kingdom. The first yeast originated hundreds of millions of years ago, and at least 1,500 species are currently recognized. They are est ...

, and

brown sugar Brown sugar is a sucrose sugar product with a distinctive brown color due to the presence of molasses. It is either an unrefined or partially refined soft sugar consisting of sugar crystals with some residual molasses content or produced by t ...

. It has a deep brown and pitted appearance, and takes the form of a bite-sized pillow or short, sausage-like cylinder. Although traditional karintō is coated with brown sugar, other variations now appear on the market, such as white sugar,

sesame Sesame (; ''Sesamum indicum'') is a plant in the genus '' Sesamum'', also called benne. Numerous wild relatives occur in Africa and a smaller number in India. It is widely naturalized in tropical regions around the world and is cultivated for ...

seeds,

miso is a traditional Japanese seasoning. It is a thick paste produced by fermenting soybeans with salt and kōji (the fungus ''Aspergillus oryzae''), and sometimes rice, barley, seaweed, or other ingredients. It is used for sauces and spreads; p ...

, or

peanut The peanut (''Arachis hypogaea''), also known as the groundnut, goober (US), goober pea, pindar (US) or monkey nut (UK), is a legume crop grown mainly for its edible seeds. It is widely grown in the tropics and subtropics by small and large ...

In popular culture

* In '' Apollo Justice: Ace Attorney'' and '' Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney: Spirit of Justice'', police detective and forensic scientist Ema Skye constantly eats karintō on duty (the snack was localized as chocolate-flavored "snackoos"). * In '' Danganronpa 2: Goodbye Despair'', karintō is stated to be one of Fuyuhiko Kuzuryuu's favourite foods. The English release changes this to fried dough cookies, as karintō is not a well known food in the West. * In ''

Gosick is a Japanese light novel series written by Kazuki Sakuraba, with illustrations by Hinata Takeda. The series includes 13 novels published by Fujimi Shobo between December 2003 and July 2011. Set in a fictional European country in 1924, ...

'', Kujo gives karintō to Victorique, who comments that they look like dog feces. * In ''

Jin (TV series) is a Japanese television drama series, first broadcast on TBS in 2009 and a second season in 2011. It is based on the Japanese manga series, '' Jin'', written by Motoka Murakami. It was one of the most popular dramas of the year and won ma ...

'', karintō is infused with vitamins to treat a reluctant patient. * In '' Lycoris Recoil'', karintō are a staple food at the dorm. * In '' Mirmo!'', karinto is Yashichi’s favorite food. * In '' Magical Emi'' episode 34, karintō are featured as a snack a character spends the entire episode trying to conquer his fear of.

History

Karintō's roots are unclear, with primary origination theories being either from around the

Nara Period The of the history of Japan covers the years from 710 to 794. Empress Genmei established the capital of Heijō-kyō (present-day Nara). Except for a five-year period (740–745), when the capital was briefly moved again, it remained the capita ...

or being derived from a Portuguese snack in a later period. In either case it has been available from street merchants since at least the

Tenpō was a after '' Bunsei'' and before '' Kōka.'' The period spanned from December 1830 through December 1844. The reigning emperor was . Introduction Change of era * December 10, 1830 () : In the 13th year of ''Bunsei'', the new era name of ...

era, roughly from 1830 to 1841.

References

Wagashi Deep fried foods Palauan desserts {{Japan-cuisine-stub