Mitarashi Tare (みたらしのたれ, sweet soy glaze for dango)

This sauce looks like ceremony and behaves like arithmetic. Soy sauce, sugar, mirin, water, and a little kuzu. The difficulty people imagine is not there. What matters is the thickness, because mitarashi tare must coat a grilled dango without turning into glue.

The one detail that decides it is the starch. Kuzu, the powdered root starch we use for a clean, supple set, must be dissolved cold before it meets heat. Add it dry to a hot pan and it clumps like a nervous student. Stir it in cold, then warm it gently, and the sauce turns glassy as the starch swells evenly.

This is a tare, a glaze, not a heavy syrup. Let the soy keep its edge and the sugar round it, then stop cooking as soon as the sauce leaves a clear line on the back of a spoon. Brush it over grilled dango while both are warm. The rice dumplings give you smoke and chew; the tare gives shine, salt, and sweetness. Nothing hidden, only balance.