The One about Ginza Kimuraya, the oldest, famous bakery in Japan

For many generations, Ginza Kimuraya, located in Ginza, has been serving many patrons of their famous Japanese baked goods for over a 140 years. It is Japan’s oldest bakery and famous for “Sakadane Anpan”.

The store began in 1869 with Kimura Yasube, a former samurai turned baker. Having lost his job due to the Meiji Restoration (the end of Shogunate rule in Japan), Kimura met an artisan baker who worked for a Dutch resident in Nagasaki and started baking bread using his recipe.

Because yeast was not found in Japan and hop was used in order to make dough rise, it was too hard for Japanese. So, he used saka-manju (steamed buns with bean paste filling) and came up with a special type of yeast called Sakadane. He created Sakadane Anpan in 1874 by filling the spongy, moist bread with red bean paste.

So, popular that people traveled far to taste Kimuraya’s Sakadane Anpan, he even had the honor of presenting it to the Emperor of Japan and the recipe remains the same today. Using locally produced bans and carefully selected ingredients, the shop produces nine varieties of anpan and changing the recipes to fit each season.

And the company continues to be run by the Kimura family today. The Kimuraya brand was given the name to signify the Kimura relatives who opened Kimuraya stores.

In fact, famous Samurai of the Bakumatsu period, Yamaoka Tesshu, who played an important role in the Meiji Restoration, created the first signboard for Kimuraya. Yamaoka was dedicated to zen, calligraphy and swordsmanship.

But Ginza Kimuraya is a store that people still come from very far locations to visit, to try Sakadane Anpan. For those not familiar with anpan, it’s a Japanese sweet in which an (a jam made with sweet red beans with sugar) is inside fresh baked bread.

And while Kimura Sohoten has engaged in business primarily in the Kanto area, the original store wants to support licensees and since the time of when Kimuraya was established, the mission has always been to spread bread culture throughout Japan, so Kimuraya was never interested in patenting their famous anpan recipe.

And if one wants bake bread, it’s all made in their main building. The main store is located right across from Mitsukoshi in the posh area of Ginza.

To find the building in Ginza, it’s best to look for the Wako building with the big Seiko clock tower on top. Ginza Kimuraya is located next door.

The building where Ginza Kimuraya is located was built when Kimuraya Sohoten celebrated its centennial. Because it’s known as Japan’s oldest bakery, 30-40% of customers are people from all over the world who have read about the famous Sakadane Anpan.

The building has four floors, the first floor is the main bakery, the second floor is the cafe, the third floor is a western style restaurant and the fourth floor has a French bistro.

Kimuraya felt it was a great opportunity to introduce their bread that is unique to Japan. So, they also developed “An Butter Pan”, a baguette roll with an and butter filling, which appeals to people from western countries including Japan, or for people who are not eating an.

Their most popular items is their salt-pickled cherry blossom “Sakura” and their “Ogura”. Because I wanted to try Kimuraya Ginza during the cherry blossom season, I couldn’t wait to try Ginza Kimuraya’s Sakadane Anpan.