It is made of batter in a special pan (similar to a waffle iron but without the honeycomb pattern and instead resembles an "oban" which was the old Japanese coin used during the second half of the 16th century until the 19th century), and filled with sweet azuki bean paste, although it is becoming increasingly popular to use a wider variety of fillings such as vanilla custard, different fruit custards and preserves, curry, different meat and vegetable fillings, potato and mayonnaise.

[3][4] Imagawayaki are similar to dorayaki, but the latter are two separate pancakes sandwiched around the filling after cooking, and are often served cold.

Imagawayaki were first sold near the Kanda's Imagawabashi Bridge during the An'ei era (1772–1781) of the Edo period (1603–1867).

The Filipino counterpart, locally known as "Japanese cakes", are similar to imagawayaki but of a smaller serving size and are usually filled with cheese slices.

This inexpensive snack is commonly found sold on special tricycle carts that have a built-in custom-made circular cooking mold.