anpan

plural anpans

1. countableuncountableA Japanese sweet roll most commonly filled with red bean paste.

   Japanization of practice is reflected in the food used, such as the bread and anpan buns as a substitute for Korean rice cakes.

   1999, Jeffry Thomas Hester, Place-Making and the Cultural Politics of Belonging in a Mixed Korean/Japanese Locale of Osaka, Japan, University of California, Berkeley, page 187

   5 more examples

   Anpanman, a male hero whose head is composed of anpan—a doughy snack filled with sweet bean paste, is the central character in a children’s book (/cartoon/comic/toy) series in Japan.

   1992, 91st Annual Meeting, San Francisco, California, American Anthropological Association, →ISBN, page 40

   At once, Tanuki changed himself into a little girl holding a plate with four anpan (buns filled with red bean paste)—the Tengu’s favorite food. As soon as the three Tengu saw the anpan, they rushed up to grab them.

   2000, Rena Krasno, Floating Lanterns and Golden Shrines: Celebrating Japanese Festivals, Pacific View Press, →ISBN, page 46

   For those familiar with the anime “Anpanman,” the title character is so named because his head is the shape of an anpan bun.

   2005, Satomi Ikezawa, translated by William Flanagan, Othello, volume 3, New York, N.Y.: Del Rey Books, →ISBN

   Anpan was a huge success and the bakery was immediately commissioned to serve the emperor’s court, which made their reputation solid. It is believed that the invention of anpan made a substantial contribution to bringing bread onto Japanese tables.

   2016, Machiko Kusahara, “Proto-Media Art: Revisiting Japanese Postwar Avant-garde Art”, in Christiane Paul, editor, A Companion to Digital Art, Wiley-Blackwell, →ISBN, part I (Histories of Digital Art), page 116

   Anpan is a sweet bread filled with red bean paste (it’s what Kurtz pictures on the first page of this story). An extremely widespread snack, one of Japan’s most popular cartoon characters is Anpan Man, a superhero whose head is an anpan bun.

   2017, Petos, translated by Kevin Steinbach, Interviews with Monster Girls, volume 5, Kodansha Comics, →ISBN