Niwaka Senpei

This is the Niwaka Senpei, created by the company “Toundo” located in Hakata Fukuoka/Japan. The Niwaka Senpei is a Japanese cookie created and designed in 1906 by Kishichi Takagi, the original owner of Toundo. He wanted to create a product that highlighted the culture of Hakata and its people. The word Niwaka originated from an event that often took place almost 300 years ago, where people in Hakata would walk around the night streets with paper lanterns with their eyes carved out and would crack jokes and mess around with the people around them. The word “Senpei” comes from the Japanese word “Senbei”, which means rice cracker, and it is said that in some areas of Kyushu/south of Japan, people pronounce “Senbei” as “Senpei” naturally in their dialect. 

This Niwaka mask is still used today in a Japanese event called the “Hakata Niwaka”, where entertainers wear the mask shown above the cookie in the picture, and put on an improvised comedy show.