Souhonke Surugaya Zenemon Surugamachi Main Store

Founded in 1461 in Fushimi, Kyoto, Surugaya is one of Japan's oldest confectioners, with a history stretching back over 560 years. Its place in Japanese food history is secure: the fifth-generation master Okamoto Zenemon devised, and the sixth generation perfected, what is said to be Japan's first neri-yokan—a firm, kneaded red bean jelly entirely unlike the steamed yokan of the day, with a delicate crystallized sugar sheen that won over feudal lords across the country. In the Azuchi-Momoyama period, the shop's crimson yokan was presented as a gift at Toyotomi Hideyoshi's grand tea gathering, and when the house later followed the Kishu Tokugawa clan to Wakayama, it became their favored confectioner. That legacy is still on the shelves today: neri-yokan made by the traditional hand-poured method, prized for the thin layer of sugar crystals ("shari") that forms on its surface, and Hon-no-ji manju, a modest steamed bun said to have been enjoyed by the Kishu lords on their journeys to Kyoto. A short walk from Wakayama Castle, the Surugamachi main store—whose neighborhood is literally named after the shop's trade name—is where five and a half centuries of Japanese confectionery can be tasted in a single visit.