カステラ

Shogakukan's Nihon Kokugo Daijiten gives Portuguese pão de Castella as the source of カステラ. Modern Portuguese writes Castela for Castile, the old kingdom in the Iberian Peninsula; the phrase means bread of Castile. The same dictionary says Portuguese people brought the recipe to Nagasaki in the Tensho era, 1573-1592, and it cites Taikoki in 1625 with かすていら among Nanban sweets. Nipponica also notes a 1556 Hirado tradition. The borrowing belongs to the late Muromachi and Azuchi-Momoyama trade world, when sugar, eggs, and European baking methods entered western Japan. The long phrase pão de Castella was shortened in Japanese speech to カステイラ and then カステラ. Other sweets in the same printed list include ボーロ, カルメル or カルメラ, アルヘイ糖, and コンペイトー. In Japan the meaning moved from a Castile-labeled bread or cake to a local sponge confection sold in Nagasaki, Kyoto, and Osaka. Today カステラ means a Japanese rectangular sponge cake made with flour, eggs, sugar, and often mizuame, with Nagasaki as its best-known production area. It is not the same as the Portuguese phrase pão de Castela, and English castella usually names the Japanese sweet rather than any Castilian bread. A short use is 長崎でカステラを買った.