is a Japan

Japan

Japan is an island nation in East Asia. Located in the Pacific Ocean, it lies to the east of the Sea of Japan, China, North Korea, South Korea and Russia, stretching from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north to the East China Sea and Taiwan in the south...

ese sweet bun

Bun

A bun is a small, usually sweet, bread. Commonly they are hand-sized or smaller, domed in shape, with a flat bottom. A bun can also be a savory bread roll similar to a bap or barmcake....

 most commonly filled with red bean paste

Red bean paste

Red bean paste or Azuki bean paste is a sweet, dark red bean paste originating from China. It is used in Chinese cuisine, Japanese confectionery, and Korean cuisine. It is prepared by boiling and mashing azuki beans and then sweetening the paste with sugar or honey...

. Anpan can also be prepared with other fillings, including white beans (shiro-an), sesame

Sesame

Sesame is a flowering plant in the genus Sesamum. Numerous wild relatives occur in Africa and a smaller number in India. It is widely naturalized in tropical regions around the world and is cultivated for its edible seeds, which grow in pods....

 (goma-an) and chestnut

Chestnut

Chestnut , some species called chinkapin or chinquapin, is a genus of eight or nine species of deciduous trees and shrubs in the beech family Fagaceae, native to temperate regions of the Northern Hemisphere. The name also refers to the edible nuts they produce.-Species:The chestnut belongs to the...

 (kuri-an).

History

Anpan was first made in 1875, during the Meiji period

Meiji period

The , also known as the Meiji era, is a Japanese era which extended from September 1868 through July 1912. This period represents the first half of the Empire of Japan.- Meiji Restoration and the emperor :...

, by a man called Yasubei Kimura, a samurai

Samurai

is the term for the military nobility of pre-industrial Japan. According to translator William Scott Wilson: "In Chinese, the character 侍 was originally a verb meaning to wait upon or accompany a person in the upper ranks of society, and this is also true of the original term in Japanese, saburau...

 who lost his job with the rise of the Imperial Army (made up of conscripts) and the dissolution of the samurai as a social class. The Meiji era was a period in which Japan was becoming increasingly westernized, and many samurai who lost their jobs were given work that was totally new to them. The Western role of baker was one such job.

One day, while wandering around the area where many people employed in Western jobs worked, Kimura Yasubei found a young man making breads. Yasubei felt that it was time for Japanese culture to become more Westernised, and so he started a bakery

Bakery

A bakery is an establishment which produces and sells flour-based food baked in an oven such as bread, cakes, pastries and pies. Some retail bakeries are also cafés, serving coffee and tea to customers who wish to consume the baked goods on the premises.-See also:*Baker*Cake...

 named Bun'eidō (文英堂). In 1874, He moved to Ginza

Ginza

is a district of Chūō, Tokyo, located south of Yaesu and Kyōbashi, west of Tsukiji, east of Yūrakuchō and Uchisaiwaichō, and north of Shinbashi.It is known as an upscale area of Tokyo with numerous department stores, boutiques, restaurants and coffeehouses. Ginza is recognized as one of the most...

 and renamed the bakery Kimuraya (木村屋). 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. Yasubei wanted to make a bread that was more to Japanese tastes. Finally, he figured out how to make bread in the way of the Japanese manju -- raising the dough with the traditional sakadane liquid yeast

Yeast

Yeasts are eukaryotic micro-organisms classified in the kingdom Fungi, with 1,500 species currently described estimated to be only 1% of all fungal species. Most reproduce asexually by mitosis, and many do so by an asymmetric division process called budding...

. He then filled the bread with a bean paste wagashi

Wagashi

is a traditional Japanese confectionery which is often served with tea, especially the types made of mochi, azuki bean paste, and fruits.Wagashi is typically made from natural ingredients...

 and sold anpan as snacks. Anpan was very popular, not only because of its taste, but also because the Japanese were interested in anything new and foreign at this time.

Later, a man called Takayuki Yamaoka, a chamberlain of the Meiji emperor, who loved anpan, asked the Tokugawas

Tokugawa shogunate

The Tokugawa shogunate, also known as the and the , was a feudal regime of Japan established by Tokugawa Ieyasu and ruled by the shoguns of the Tokugawa family. This period is known as the Edo period and gets its name from the capital city, Edo, which is now called Tokyo, after the name was...

, the rulers of Japan before the Meiji Period, to present anpans to the emperor when visiting him. So the Tokugawas asked Yasubei to make some for the emperor. Yasubei worked hard to make the anpan and, because he also cared about their appearance, he decorated them with a salt-pickled sakura

Sakura

A cherry blossom is the flower of any of several trees of genus Prunus, particularly the Japanese Cherry, Prunus serrulata, which is sometimes called sakura after the Japanese . Many of the varieties that have been cultivated for ornamental use do not produce fruit...

 in the middle of each bun. This anpan was presented to the Meiji emperor on April 4, 1875. The emperor told Yasubei to present him the Anpan everyday, and because of the rumor that the emperor ate anpan, breads, and especially anpan, began spreading around the country.

Influence on Japanese popular culture

Anpan is often used as slang for recreational inhalation of paint thinner.

The anime

Anime

is the Japanese abbreviated pronunciation of "animation". The definition sometimes changes depending on the context. In English-speaking countries, the term most commonly refers to Japanese animated cartoons....

 Anpanman

Anpanman

is one of the most popular anime cartoon series for young children in Japan. , the titular Anpanman is the most popular fictional character among people age 0 to 12 years in Japan in 10 consective years, according to research by Bandai. The series is written by Takashi Yanase, a Japanese writer of...

is about a superhero

Superhero

A superhero is a type of stock character, possessing "extraordinary or superhuman powers", dedicated to protecting the public. Since the debut of the prototypical superhero Superman in 1938, stories of superheroes — ranging from brief episodic adventures to continuing years-long sagas —...

 whose head is made of anpan.

In Clannad the heroine, Nagisa, enjoys anpan and uses it as a motivation. In fact, when Nagisa and Tomoya (the male lead) first met, Tomoya witnessed Nagisa motivating herself to climb a hill by saying the word "anpan" aloud to herself, unaware that Tomoya was listening.

The character Dr. Andounuts from EarthBound

EarthBound

EarthBound, also known as EarthBound: The War Against Giygas! and released as in Japan, is a role-playing video game co-developed by Ape and HAL Laboratory and published by Nintendo for the Super Nintendo Entertainment System video game console...

 eats and is named after anpan-filled donuts.

In Gintama

Gintama

, also known as Gintama, is a Japanese manga written and illustrated by Hideaki Sorachi and serialized, beginning on December 8, 2003, in Shueisha's Weekly Shōnen Jump...

Yamazaki gains an obsession with anpan in the fifth season.

In Deadman Wonderland

Deadman Wonderland

is a manga serial written by Jinsei Kataoka and illustrated by Kazuma Kondou, who also wrote and illustrated the Eureka Seven manga, and published in Shōnen Ace since 2007. Tokyopop acquired the licensing rights to distribute the manga in English and has released the first volume on February 9, 2010...

the prisioners gain an anpan for participating in the dog race.

In the third volume of Haruki Murakami's novel 1Q84

1Q84

1Q84 is a novel by Haruki Murakami, first published in three volumes in Japan in 2009–10. The novel quickly became a sensation, with its first printing selling out the day it was released, and reaching sales of one million within a month...

, the private detective Ushikawa has some with his coffee while staking out Tengo.