{{Short description|Japanese filled sweet bun}} {{Italic title}}{{Infobox food | name = Anpan | image = Anpan 001.jpg | image_size = 300px | caption = | alternate_name = | country = Japan | region =Ginza, Tokyo | creator = Yasubei Kimura | course = Dessert | type = Sweet roll | served = | main_ingredient = Red bean paste | variations = | calories = | other = }} [[Image:Ginza kimuraya Bread.jpg|thumb|Kimuraya in Ginza]]
{{Nihongo|'''''Anpan'''''|あんパン|extra={{wikt-lang|ja|餡}}パン}} is a Japanese sweet roll, most commonly filled with red bean paste. ''Anpan'' can also be prepared with other fillings, including white beans (''shiro-an''), green beans (''uguisu-an''), sesame (''goma-an''), and chestnuts (''kuri-an''). The name is a compound word, combining ''an'' (sweet bean paste) and ''pan'' (bread).<ref name="Smil_Kobayashi">{{Cite book |last=Smil |first=Vaclav |title=Japan's Dietary Transition and Its Impacts |last2=Kobayashi |first2=Kazuhiko |publisher=The MIT Press |year=2012 |isbn=978-0-262-01782-4 |location=Cambridge, Massachusetts |pages=21}}</ref>
==History==
''Anpan'' was first made in 1875 in the Meiji era, as western bakeries gained popularity in Japan for the first time.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Jacob |first=Jeanne |title=Food Cultures of Japan: Recipes, Customs, and Issues |publisher=Greenwood |year=2022 |isbn=978-1-4408-6683-8 |location=Santa Barbara, California & Denver, Colorado |pages=xxi}}</ref> Its creator, {{ill|Yasubei Kimura|ja|木村安兵衛}} (木村安兵衛 ''Kimura Yasubei''), a samurai who lost his job with the rise of the Imperial Japanese Army and the dissolution of the samurai as a social class.<ref>{{cite book |last=Nakayama |first=Keiko |date=2006 |title=Encyclopedia: World of Wagashi| isbn=978-4000803076}}</ref> The Meiji era marked a period of rapid modernization in Japan, and many samurai who lost their jobs were given work that was totally new to them. The role of a baker was one such job.
One day, while wandering around the area where many employed in new jobs worked, Kimura found a young man making bread, and decided to start his own bakery, named Bun'eidō (文英堂){{Supported by ref|Smil_Kobayashi|, the first owned in Japan by a Japanese person.}}{{Ref supports3|<ref name="Smil_Kobayashi" />|Smil_Kobayashi}} In 1874, he moved to Ginza and renamed the bakery Kimuraya (木村屋), now Kimuraya Sohonten (:ja:木村屋總本店). At that time, however, the only recipe for bread known in Japan was for making a salty and sour-tasting bread, ill-suited to Japanese tastes at the time. Kimura thus figured out how to make bread akin to ''manjū'', raising the dough with traditional ''sakadane'' liquid yeast. He then filled the bread with a bean paste ''wagashi'' and sold the resulting rolls as snacks. ''Anpan'' became popular not only because of its taste, but also because the Japanese were interested in anything new and foreign at that time,{{citation needed|date=February 2022}} In Kimura's original formulation, two ''anpan'' were sold: those with white sesame seeds atop, and others with poppy seeds atop.<ref name="Smil_Kobayashi" />
Emperor Meiji and Empress Shōken later acquired a fondness for anpan after Kimura, via chamberlain Yamaoka Tesshū, prepared it for them to eat during ''hanami''. Concerned with their appearance, he decorated them with a salt-pickled sakura in the middle of each bun. These anpan were presented to the emperor and empress on April 4, 1875, after which the emperor requested ''anpan'' from Kimura on a regular basis. Because of its newfound association with royalty, the popularity of anpan, and bread as a whole, increased throughout Japan.{{citation needed|date=February 2013}}
By the early 20th century, ''anpan'' were popularly perceived to be prepared the day before, bringing concerns that it could grow stale and harm children consuming the rolls. A description in the period of schoolchildren described around a quarter forgoing their lunchboxes for ''anpan''.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Mitsuda |first=Tatsuya |title=Feeding Japan: The Cultural and Political Issues of Dependency and Risk |publisher=Palgrave Macmillan Cham |year=2017 |isbn=978-3-319-50552-7 |editor-last=Niehaus |editor-first=Andreas |pages=73 |chapter=‘Sweets Reimagined’: The Construction of Confectionary Identities, 1890–1930 |editor-last2=Walravens |editor-first2=Tine}}</ref> Today, ''anpan'' are widely regarded as a staple of Japanese bakery culture and are often cited as one of the most recognizable examples of Western-influenced "Japanese bread" products.<ref name=":0">{{Cite book |last=Sheng |first=Annie |title=Feeding Japan: The Cultural and Political Issues of Dependency and Risk |publisher=Palgrave Macmillan Cham |year=2017 |isbn=978-3-319-50552-7 |editor-last=Niehaus |editor-first=Andreas |pages=197, 215 |chapter=Forging Ahead with Bread: Nationalism, Networks and Narratives of Progress and Modernity in Japan |editor-last2=Walravens |editor-first2=Tine}}</ref>
== Food == Unlike the steamed ''manjū'' that ''anpan'' is modelled on, ''anpan'' is baked or fried.<ref name="Smil_Kobayashi" /> In addition to the original poppy seed and white sesame seed toppings, modern bakeries, including the still extant Kimuraya, produce ''anpan'' with a variety of fillings and toppings such as salt-pickled cherry blossoms, chocolate, curry, custard, and pork chops.<ref name="Smil_Kobayashi" />
==In popular culture== "Anpan" is often used as slang for recreational inhalation of paint thinner.<ref>{{cite book|url= https://books.google.com/books?id=x6CXShcyrDAC&q=anpan+drug+slang&pg=PA176 |title = Japanese Slang: Uncensored | first = Peter | last = Constantine |date= 1994-06-15 |isbn = 9784900737037 | access-date= 2011-10-31}}</ref>
The picture book and anime series ''Anpanman'' is about a superhero whose head is made of ''anpan''. By 2017, five museums based on the franchise existed in cities across Japan.<ref name=":0" />
The anime and picture book character Kogepan is an anthropomorphized burned ''anpan''.<ref>{{cite web |title=焦げて、やさぐれて、後向き……人気キャラクター「こげぱん」約15年ぶり新刊発売 |url=https://realsound.jp/book/2021/04/post-740353.html |website=Real Sound｜リアルサウンド ブック |access-date=26 August 2025 |language=ja |date=12 April 2021}}</ref>
==References== {{Commons category|Anpan}} {{reflist}}
== External links == * {{Citation | url = http://www.kimuraya-sohonten.co.jp/ | title = Kimuraya Sohonten | language = ja | access-date = 21 March 2006}}. * {{Citation | url = http://www.shejapan.com/jtyeholder/jtye/living/anpan/anpan1.html | title = The Birth of Anpan | publisher = She Japan | access-date = 21 March 2006}}.
{{Bread}} {{Japanese bread}} {{Japanese food and drink}}
Category:Japanese breads Category:Japanese desserts and sweets Category:Sweet breads Category:Legume desserts