Daifuku
Today I will talk about the Japanese food “daifuku.”
大福
The literal meaning of 大福 (daifuku) is “big lucky”, and it is a kind of Japanese sweets that wrap azuki-an (a sweet red paste made from red azuki beans) in mochi (sticky rice cake).
今日は「大福」という日本の食べ物を紹介します。
During the Muromachi Period, such mochi sweets were called “uzura mochi” (quail mochi) because of its shape.
大福は、小豆でできた餡を餅で包んだ和菓子の一種で、大福餅とも呼ばれます。
Also, since uzura mochi was big and gave you the feeling of long fullness, it was also called “腹太餅 (harabuto mochi),” where ‘腹 (hara)’ means belly and ‘太 (buto)’ means ‘large’).
室町時代には、このような餅菓子は、その形から「鶉餅」と呼ばれていました。
During the Edo Period, harabuto mochi became smaller, and it became to be called “大福餅 (daifuku mochi),” where ‘大 (dai)’ means big and ‘腹 (fuku)’ means belly.
また、当時の鶉餅は大きく、腹持ちが良かったことから（そして鶉のお腹は膨れていたことから）、「腹太餅（はらぶともち）」とも呼ばれていました。
Finally, the auspicious letter ‘福 (fuku),’ meaning lucky, came to be used instead of ‘腹,’ and it became ‘大福 (daifuku)’ or “大福餅 (daifuku mochi).”
江戸時代にはもう少し小さくなり、「大腹餅（だいふくもち）」という名前が一般的になりました。
