Stores began preserving leaves for the following year's kashiwa mochi (柏餅). Steamed, the leaves could be kept a long time, but their colour faded to a tea-ish brown.
Nowadays you will see both colours in stores as new technology allows for the green colour to be preserved💚🙌
Kashiwa mochi.
A peek at the rice cake kept within the kashiwa ('oak') leaf.
Kashiwa mochi.
Kashiwa mochi...you can see the leaves are different colours. Until recently it was very difficult to preserve and keep the leaves fresh green, so a muddier green/brown was more common.
