A local dish from Akita Prefecture. Cooked japonica rice is mashed in a mortar, spread onto thin bamboo skewers, and grilled over charcoal. During the Edo period, when hunters and lumberjacks went into the mountains for several days, they would scorch the surface of rice balls to keep their bento fresh. In the late Edo period, in Hanawa, near Odate, to entertain a visiting feudal lord, rice was spread around small cedar sticks; one end of the stick was cut, and the other was sharpened, then inserted into the hearth ash to be grilled and served. The lord praised the taste and asked for its name. Since it was a creative dish, it was nameless at the time. Someone improvised and answered “kiri-dango” (cut dumplings) because its shape resembled the cut end of a short spear. From then on, this name was widely used. It was not originally used in salt-based hot pots, but it has now become a part of this famous dish. There are many ways to prepare kiri-dango, and it is now mass-produced; it was first sold as a commercial product in the early Showa period by a restaurant in Noshiro.
