Sep 30, 2015 - 1 min read

Oimatsu Sweets Shop in Kyoto

An old, long-established shop providing Japanese sweets

By Shozo Fujii

Community writer

Translated by Sarah Chaney

Community writer

Matcha tea with the most popular Japanese sweet - Sakura mochi (a rice cake stuffed with bean paste and wrapped in a leaf)

You can select the Japanese sweets you would like from the store

A small traditional garden in front of the mud wall.

Several kinds of Japanese sweets. All of which are made along the theme of spring.

It is set along the main street in Sagano.

The view of the store from outside, facing the front.

The entrance way of the cafe portion of the shop is decorated with tools that were used to make sweets long ago.

I walked into a shop selling Japanese sweets made in Kyoto and had matcha tea with sakura mochi, a rice cake stuffed with bean paste and wrapped in a leaf. Although there were several choices I could have picked from, the popularity of sakura mochi is hard to ignore.

This mochi uses refined Japanese sugar. If you simply use white sugar, it only takes an hour to make. With Japanese refined sugar, however, it takes an incredible five days to make this type of sweet by hand.

This careful process, paired with azuki bean paste really brings out the sweet taste. These ingredients fill the air with the refined smell of delicious sweets. This humble process is what sets this sweet apart from others.

I walked into Oimatsu shop in Kyoto and spent a leisurely afternoon sipping tea and eating sweets.