Meaning
干し柿 (ほしがき, Hoshigaki) is Dried persimmon, a Japanese food (fruits, plants).
What is Dried persimmon?
Hoshigaki is a dried persimmon. It is traditionally made in the winter, by air drying Oriental persimmon. It is a popular snack food in East Asia, and is also used to make wine, and in creating other desserts. Persimmons, when fully ripe, are thin-skinned, soft and sweet. Persimmons that are to be dried are harvested when they are under-ripe, firm, astringent, and bitter. In Japan, the fruit are peeled and then suspended by strings from their stems. They are massaged daily after they have started to dry. This gives the dried persimmon from Japan a distinctive shape and texture that is different from those from China and Korea.