sekihan () means “red rice”, and is a traditional japanese food usually eaten on important days. it was originally brought from china during the jōmon period and used red rice. in modern times, it is made by steaming sticky rice and red beans. it is typically served in a bowl or in bento. local specialty ingredients are often added to make it sweeter, such as peanuts in chiba prefecture, nattō in yamanashi prefecture and hiroshima prefecture, and sweet beans in nagano prefecture.