When you read the title, you might have thought “What is Yokan?”
Yokan is a traditional Japanese confection which is a sweet bean jelly.
It is made with red bean jam mixed with kanten, a seaweed-based thickener similar to gelatin, to make a firm cake.
Since yokan only uses kanten, azuki beans and sugar, it is free of both gluten and dairy, which will be a great souvenir for everyone. Additionally, they last longer than most of the Japanese confections without refrigeration.
Last month, we walked around the Fushimi area and went to “Fushimi Surugaya”, a Japanese traditional confection shop. Surugaya is famous for the first store that invented Yokan in Japan. Surugaya has more than 10 branches mainly in the Kansai region. The store we went to is one of the branch stores.
More than 550 years ago, the Fushimi area thrived as a port. Tsuruya, the former name of the store “Surugaya”, started as a sweet bun shop in this area. In the old days, yokan used to be made by steaming, and it was more like a steamed-bun than what it is like today. These kind of yokan had a short expiration date.
In the Edo period, agar was discovered in Fushimi. Okamoto Zenemon, the 6th generation of Surugaya, made the yokan by kneading over a flame using agar and firmed it into a long square shape. In this way, it can be stored for long periods of time than the steamed ones. From then, the typical Japanese yokan is what it is nowadays.
▼ kanten used to make yokan
The owner of Fushimi Surugaya Takahiro Yamamoto, said that the recipe to make the sweets in all the Surugaya stores are all the same, but the supplier of each stores are different. From using different ingredients using the same recipe, you can enjoy the differences of the confections from each store.
However, he says that the recipe of a yokan named "Yoruno ume(夜の梅)"(plum in the night) is shared only within three stores, including the head store. And this store is one of the three.
▼ Yokan displayed in the store in variety of sizes
Also the designs of the confections and the packages are different in each stores too. At the Fushimi Surugaya, we found a cute packaged yokan with 5 flavors in a set. Yokan is usually in a long package without cut or in an individual packages, and you slice it when you eat it.
It will be a great souvenir for your friends, family to share or even for yourself to try different flavors!!
▼ Yokan in cute designed packages
They also have different kinds of Japanese traditional confection, and seasonal ones too. It is located near the Japanese sake brewery district, so dropping by when you visit Fushimi area will be a great idea!!
Fushimi Yokan
Address 612-8364,174 Shimoaburakake-cho, Fushimi-ku, Kyoto city, Kyoto
Tel +81756110020
Open 9:30AM ~ 6:00PM (Closed on Tuesdays)
※Please check the calendar on the website before visiting
Twitter @fushimisurugaya
website （Japanese Only）
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