I wrote earlier about a dentist called ‘Baumkuchen‘. So here’s a little more about baumkuchen in Hiroshima.

Baumkuchen is a traditional German cake made by layering thin coats of batter onto a rotating spit. When sliced, it resembles the rings of a tree—hence the name ‘tree cake’ (Baum=tree, Kuchen=cake).

Baumkuchen arrived in Japan- specifically, Hiroshima- thanks to Karl Juchheim, a German pastry chef.

During World War I, Juchheim was captured and held in Japan at the Bando POW Camp. After the war, in 1919, he showcased Baumkuchen at the Hiroshima Prefectural Products Exhibition. This was the first time Baumkuchen was introduced to Japan, and Hiroshima prides itself on being where it all started.

Back in 2019 in Hiroshima, quite a bit was made of the 100th anniversary of Japanese baumkuchen. One of the trams in Hiroshima even bore a special logo to commemorate the anniversary!

After the exhibition, Karl Juchheim stayed in Japan and founded the confectionery company Juchheim, and baumkuchen began to spread through department stores and Western-style confectionery shops. Its original- and continued- popularity may well come from the fact that the tree rings in the cake represent longevity, prosperity, and continuity, which makes baumkuchen an excellent fit with Japanese culture.