Chinsuko

Japanese Wikipedia explains the kanji 金楚糕 as a golden baked sweet that melts in the mouth. Late in the kingdom, cooks who travelled with Chinese envoys learned confectionery in Fuzhou, and others learned Japanese sweets through contact with Satsuma officials, and chinsuko came out of that mix as a treat for royalty and nobles at celebrations. Theories on the name run from the Chinese baked cake tousu to Portuguese bolo, and Japanese Wikipedia marks its own sourcing as thin.

Arakaki Yoshinori came from the third generation of a family that had made sweets for the court, and in 1908 he opened Arakaki Kashiten and baked large, crumbly chinsuko in a brick oven. His son Yoshifu opened a separate shop in Kume in Naha, cut the dough into the small oblong bars you see today with cookie cutters from the US bases, and moved to machine production and clear wrappers. Honke Arakaki Kashiten in Shuri and Arakaki Chinsuko Honpo on Kokusai-dori both trace their lines to the family, and Arakaki Kami Kashiten opened after the war under a widow of the family.

Flavours now include kokuto, beni-imo, cheese and pineapple. Nanpudo's Yukishio Chinsuko, launched in 2005 with Miyako snow salt to cut the richness, became a best seller, and Blue Seal turns the salt version into ice cream.