Aburimochi (scorched rice cake) (あぶり餅)
Aburimochi is a kind of rice cake snack, made of thumb-sized rice cakes dredged with soybean flour, skewered on a bamboo stick, roasted over charcoal fire, and then basted with white bean pastes, or otherwise okaki (cracker mix) and senbei (rice crackers) skewered on a stick.
Aburimochi are sold at many Japanese sweet shops and those located in the precincts of Imamiya-jinja Shrine in Kita-ku Ward, Kyoto City, Seiryo-ji Temple in Saga, Ukyo-ku Ward, Kyoto City, Jinmei-gu Shrine of Kanazawa gosha (five shrines of Kanazawa) in Kanazawa City, Ishikawa Prefecture, and so on, are famous among them.
Especially, the shop located in the Imamiya-jinja Shrine is said to be the oldest Japanese sweet shop operating since the Heian period, which is said to have served aburimochi to starved people on the entrance path to the shrine during the Onin War and during other times of famine. Aburimochi are popular as they are believed to bring the people who eat them the benefits of expelling diseases and evils because aburimochi are skewered with purified bamboo sticks dedicated to Imamiya-jinja Shrine, in the same way as any one may receive benefits if he or she joins oni (a devil) under its umbrella with floral decorations for the Yasurai festival held at the Imamiya-jinja shrine on the second Sunday of every April.