"Hanazono (Flower Garden)"
A garden is full of yellow and orange flowers. Red and pink ones too. Wherever you walk there are flowers. They are shining in many colors. Such a fulfilling spring day. I wonder why flowers are this beautiful.

(Katsuji Wakisaka, the textile designer)

卯月のテキスタイルデザインは「花園」。
色とりどりの花が輝いている様子を表しています。
今回のお菓子は、若き和菓子職人、藤田玲美さんによるもの。繊細な飴細工に、パティシエの技術が生かされています。
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The textile inspiration for the march wagashi is called "Flower Garden".
What is being evoked here is the expression of flowers in bloom.
For this month the the wagashi was created by the up and coming confectioner, Satomi Fujita.
You can see her delicate technique from her training as a pastry chef.

桜味の飴細工の下には上用饅頭が隠れています。中の餡は二重構造になっていて、桜の塩漬けを混ぜ込んだ白餡で粒餡を包んでいます。
桜の味を存分に満喫できる、この時期ならではの和菓子です。
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Under the Sakura flavored candy, we have put zyouyou manju that en-robes both a salted Sakura flavored white bean paste and a sweetened chunky red bean paste.This seasonal wagashi offers the flavor of Sakura in as many ways as possible.

京菓子老舗長久堂とのコラボレート。1年の移ろいをポップなテキスタイルデザインで表現し、和菓子に落とし込みました。
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We collaborated with famous Kyoto patisserie Choukyudou.
Our pop vibrant textile design reflect changes in the seasons and these are also expressed in our wagashi.

平成21年『PHPスペシャル』に毎月連載していた、『SOU・SOUだより』。
移ろい行く四季の和花を和菓子で表現しました。
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SOU・SOU's textile designer Katsuji Wakisaka has been publishing new textile design on monthly magazine, "PHP Special". The seasonal changes are expressed in our wagashi.

京菓子老舗『亀屋良長』さんとのコラボレート。
日本の歳時記を表現したテキスタイルに合わせて和菓子を製作しました。
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We collaborated with The noted Kyoto patisserie Kameya Yoshinaga.
Together we created wagashi that emphasize Japanese seasonal changes as well as our graphic textile prints.

華道家元池坊直営・日本華道社出版『四季の花手帖』で発表した12ヶ月の花を和菓子にしました。お菓子の製作は、京菓子の老舗『亀屋良長』さん。
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SOU・SOU designed a new flower design corresponding to each month of the year in "Flower Notes For the Four Seasons', the booklet published by Nihon Kadou Sha, operated by Ikenobo*.

Ikenobo*
Ikenobo is the original school that produced ikebana (traditional Japanese Buddhist floral design) as a unique artform in Japan
over five centuries ago and continue to spread awareness and knowledge of the ikebana tradition worldwide.