Han character 餺

餺 is the first character of 餺飥, a wheat-food name.

Qimin Yaoshu, a Chinese guide to farming and household life from the Northern Wei period, contains the earliest cited account of 餺飥, dated 531–544. It describes wheat dough cooked in seasoned meat broth.

Japanese records use the same written food name: a record from 927, the Wamyōshō (a Japanese dictionary) in 934, and a court diary in 989 that describes 餺飥 prepared for a Kasuga Shrine feast. The old Chinese broth preparation and Kōfu’s modern hōtō share the name, though the described dishes differ.

Use 餺飥 when you mean the food.

The useful unit is 餺飥. In historical Chinese food writing, it names a cooked wheat preparation; in Japan, hōtō is Kōfu’s regional dish of thick, flat noodles simmered with seasonal vegetables in miso broth.

Japanese references connect hōtō to the history of udon (饂飩), another Japanese wheat-noodle dish, and describe hōtō as its predecessor. A bare 餺 is best read as a quoted character or an incomplete word; the food name is 餺飥.

How do I enter 餺?

For 餺飥, enter botuo in a Chinese pinyin input method.

The hexadecimal input value 993A works in software that supports Unicode entry. If 餺 appears as a box, the active font lacks its glyph; a Han font that covers the character can display it.