Sentaro‘s kasutera (Castella sponge cake) is a real treat! It’s sophisticated in flavor, caramelly and very mochi-mochi (soft and chewy). Sentaro‘s manju, both soba (buckwheat) and wheat are excellent and unique.

Sentaro is a shinise (an old and long-loved store) in Kyoto that is a purveyor of fine wagashi (Japanese confections). The main store (honten) is located near Shijo-Kawaramachi on Teramachi Street.

About Sentaro
Sentaro, established in 1886 and maintains it’s own farm lands in the agriculturally rich area of Tamba (丹波). The Tamba region, in both current day Kyoto and Hyogo prefectures is well known throughout Japan for it’s black beans (kuro-mame 黒豆), chestnuts (kuri 栗), tamba-gyu (Tamba beef) and the incredibly priced matsutake (pine mushrooms). In the rich soils of Tamba Sentaro grows azuki beans, chestnuts, plums, shiso and so on. Plants that grow naturally on their property, cherry blossoms, yomogi and kinome are collected at various times of the year. The bounty of Tamba is used to make some of Sentaro’s signature wagashi.

Sentaro’s wagashi has a decided natural look to it, nearly everything in the showcase is shades of brown with occasional punctuations of green (yomogi) and pink (salted plum blossoms). Sentaro has a strict policy of not using any preservatives, artificial colors, or even much sugar.

Sentato’s Meibutsu: Manju and Kasutera
Here we review Sentaro’s popular kasutera and two kinds of manju. In Japanese, these are called meibutsu (famous, well-known, noted product or dish). Meibutsu is another important term to know, many of the great restaurants and shops in Kyoto (and Japan) have one or more meibutsu. Discovering the local meibutsu is always a good deal of fun and adventure!

Manju (饅頭)
Manju is an ubiquitous confection in Japan that was originally brought over from China and has been adapted and enjoyed by Japanese for some 700 years now. There are countless renditions, but it is an azuki bean paste filling with a flour (rice, wheat, soba, etc) shell.

Meibutsu: Soba Manju

Whole, roasted soba kernels cover the top of this manju.

Meibutsu: Wheat Manju

This manju is made of wheat flour and has two yaki-in (brand) on the top.

Filling: Soba and Wheat Manju

Notice the difference in filling. The soba manju (left) is filled with red azuki bean paste. The wheat manju (right) has a white azuki bean filling. Often, azuki is extremely sweet — too sweet. Sentaro’s is it not too sweet though, just right. Also, these manju are rather dry and even a little crumbly. Quite nice!

Filling: Soba and Wheat Manju – detail

A beautiful (and tasty) contrast!

Kasutera (カステラ)

Kasutera is another ‘Western’ food in Japan. It is based on the sponge cake that came over with Portuguese merchants and missionaries in the 1500′s. This is another much loved wagashi that has countless renditions and over the centuries has been adapted and refined to Japanese tastes.

Sentaro’s kasutera seems to have a bit of a cult following in Kyoto. Properly, it is known as “kome kara kasutera” (kasutera from rice) as it is made of rice flour.

The sugar quality and content and baking method of Sentaro’s kasutera produces a particularly delicate and caramelly kasutera.

Meibutsu: Rice Flour Kasutera (Castella) – Opening the Packaging
Packaging and wrapping is very important part of Japanese culture and this package is quite wonderful and beautiful! A delight to open and discover. (米からカステラ: kome kara kasutera)

Meibutsu: Rice Flour Kasutera (Castella) – Opening and Unwrapping

The top of the kasutera is gorgeous, moist and soft.

Meibutsu: Rice Flour Kasutera (Castella) – Cutting into Slices
This kasutera is not pre-sliced. As this kasutera is extremely soft and mochi-mochi, the blade of the knife has to be wet well before cutting. It is a little tricky, so it does come with illustrated slicing instructions!

Meibutsu: Rice Flour Kasutera (Castella) – Served

Notice the caramelly top and bottom. The bottom is syrupy and gooey, but this layer is only about 2 millimeters thick. Sublime!

Sentaro Honten (Sentaro Main Store)
Located just down from Shijo-dori (street) in the bustling Shijo-Kawaramachi area in one of the two downtowns of Kyoto, Sentaro Honten is very accessible. (This is not a picturesque area of Kyoto.)

Sentaro Storefront

Sentaro Honten occupies a modern building on Teramachi Street south of Shijo where there are many stores that sell Japanese electronics, some have duty free sections.

Sentaro Storefront – Seasonal Wagashi Postings

Sentaro Store – Wagashi Showcase

Various meibutsu manju

Sentaro Store – Wagashi Showcase

Kasutera in at the back. Other meibutsu center-left.

Sentaro Store – Wagashi Showcase

Fresh, seasonal mochi.

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English:
English menu: none
English website: none | Japanese language website (nice photos)
Service/Staff: So-so
Price: 500 – 1,000 yen. (no sit down area, take-out only)
Location and Access: Sentaro Honten (main store) is located on Teramachi Street about a 2 minute walk south from Shijo Street.
Address: 604-8032 Kyoto-shi Shimogyo-ku Teramachi-dori Bukkou-ji agaru Nakanomachi 576
(京都市下京区寺町通り仏光寺上る中之町576)
Telephone: 075-344-0700
Near Sightseeing Spot: Sentaro Honten is located in the center of Kyoto near Shijo Kawaramachi. This area has several department stores. It is the main shopping area of Kyoto. Shijo Karasuma is about a 10 minute walk.
Map:

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The New Year’s celebration, in Japanese, Oshogatsu (お正月) is the most important celebration of the year, like that of Christmas in Western countries.

The food eaten at Oshogatsu are many and varied. There are numerous traditional dishes that are only eaten at New Year’s, and it is also now common to purchase the highest quality fish, beef and poultry for family feasts.

I went to Nishiki Market this afternoon to do some of my own shopping and to snap some photos for KyotoFoodie.

Nishiki Market cannot be beaten for shopping for Oshogatsu feasts, it not only has everything, it also has the best. And the delicacies are priced accordingly!

Oshogatsu Shopping Crowd in Nishiki
Nishiki Market is just a narrow shopping arcade street, normally it is literally wall to wall people. On the last days of the year, it is even far more so. The crush of the crowd not unlike the rush hour trains of Tokyo and Osaka!

All kinds of fish for sale!

herring (nishin), herring-kombu roll (nishin-kombu maki), yellowtail (buri), Spanish mackerel (sawara)

New Year’s decorations for sale.
This temporary stand was set-up on a side street.

New Year’s Flower Arrangements

Shinise invariably have oshogatsu flower arrangements in and about the store.

Nishiki Tea Shop with Nishiki Bancha

Bancha is the popular ‘everyday tea’ in Kyoto.

Various Teas for Sale, Roaster in the Background

The roaster produces bancha, and plenty of rich, aromatic smoke.

Roaster Detail

Roasted tea leaves spill out into the container on the floor.

Customers Sampling Kyoto White Miso
White miso is sweet and is the most ‘Kyoto’ miso. It contains very little salt — and quite a few calories!

Sozaiya-san

This shop sells various ippin ryori type dishes, think of it as a Japanese deli.

Sozaiya-san

Scooping up goodies!

Osechi-ryori for Take Away

The boxes seen and beautifully wrapped contain the osechi-ryori for one person’s oshogatsu. These are for sale, or perhaps pick-up for orders.

Dried Persimmons

Tanaka, Wagashi Shinese

Mochi (rice cakes). Mochi is a necessity for Oshogatsu and often handmade by families or neighborhoods.

Bodara – Oshogatsu Cod

Bodara (棒だら), cod simmered in shoyu, mirin and sugar. This is a shogatsu staple. On the bottom left are sweetened black beans with candied chestnuts.

More Oshogatsu Osechi Fixins

In the center are candied kumquats — candied WITH the leaves still attached. I had never seen them with the leaves still attached. This is the kind of thing that makes Nishiki Market a cut above the super markets.

Another Busy Fishmonger

This shop had lots of crab for sale. Japanese love crab, especially in the winter.
Tsukemono Shop

Japanese LOVE tsukemono (pickles)!

A Well Loved Grilled Fish Shop

At oshogatsu everyone wants to eat snapper (tai), so this shop changes it’s offerings to only salt grilled snapper (tai no shioyaki). Prices are steep!

10,000 Yen Snapper!

Priced from about $50 to $100+, think of tai as the Christmas goose of the Japanese New Year’s celebration.

Cooking and Selling Snapper

The men in the background are tending the ovens.

Fugu (Pufferfish) Specialty Shop

This shop specializes in fresh fugu, another popular Oshogatsu feast. A very special treat.

Fugu, Fugu and More Fugu

On the left is chunks of fugu with large, heavy bones intact for nabe (hotpot). I always think of this as being like whole chopped chicken soup in Chinese cuisine, the meat is nibbled off the bone which is discarded on a plate. Next is paper thin sliced fugu for tessa, fugu sashimi. Next, fugu no shirako, this is the sperm sac of the male fugu. Thinly sliced fugu skin, called teppi on the lower right.

Fugu, Fugu and More Fugu

Fugu, Fugu and More Fugu

Fugu no shirako, this can be eaten raw, steamed or lightly grilled. Again, it is the sperm sac of the fugu, you might want to give it a miss, although if you had it and did not know what you were eating, I bet that you would like it!

A Popular Mochi Shop with Popular Oshogatsu Mochi Flavors
On the left is the No. 1 ninki (popular) mochi, mame mochi (mochi with black beans), and No. 2 ninki is yomogi mochi, it is green because it is made with the mugwort (yomogi) plant. Yomogi mochi is slightly astringent with a feel something like mint. Next, to the right, the yellowish colored mochi is awa mochi, awa is one of several kinds of millet that was eaten in ancient times. Now it is mostly used in confections and mochi.

Various Kinds of Mochi

The pink mochi is ebi mochi, shrimp mochi. Baby dried shrimp are added to the mochi. These ‘loafs’ of mochi are sliced and usually roasted and eaten with shoyu and sometimes a bit of sugar. The bags of round mochi to the right is for ozoni soup.

TORO!

Honmaguro chutoro is wild maguro (tuna). Chutoro (middle toro) is the cut between the red meat maguro of the back and the fatty ‘pork belly’ bottom called ootoro. The prices are around $70 for a block of toro. While that is not cheap it can provide 4 or 5 people with a generous amount of toro to go with a New Year’s family feast.

Dried Cod

This dried cod is that is reconstituted and simmered with sweetened shoyu to make bodara, an oshogatsu staple.

Chinmi – Namazu Kabayaki (Catfish)

Chinmi, literally ‘delicacy’ is especially popular with drinkers in Japan (who are not on a tight budget). This item was labeled at ‘chinmi‘, it is broiled catfish (namazu). I have never seen catfish for sale in Japan before. Catfish are regarded as an indicator of a coming earthquake, rather than food in Japan. This shop specializes in fish from Lake Biwa.

Red Snapper Heads for Sale

The head of the tai are popular for making tai no ara, a nimono (simmered dish) ever popular with the Japanese. The slowly simmered tai head is carefully picked apart and the sweetest meat of the fish is teased out with chopsticks. Tai no ara is simmered with shoyu, sake, mirin, shredded ginger and sometimes gobo.

Fugu

Notice how rotund the fugu is. When fugu is written with the Chinese kanji characters, it is usually written as ‘河豚’. 河 is ‘river’ and 豚 is ‘pig’.
Dashimaki-tamago, Serious Business at Oshogatsu
Notice the sign with the number 2 on it. This shop is so busy that customers have to get a number and reservation at a different location and come to pickup their dashimaki at a set time, in order to lessen the chaos.

Tanaka Keiran (Tanaka Chicken Egg Shop)

The stacks in the background at the center of the photo are wooden forms that the dashimaki is put in and takes it’s rectangular shape as it cools down.

Making Dashimaki

Making Dashimaki — Frantically

Making Dashimaki

Miki Keiren — The Most Famous Dashimaki Shop in Nishiki
Miki Keiren is insanely busy. The sign at the upper center shows where to go to get a number and reservation for a New Year’s dashimaki.

Side Street with People Queuing for Miki Keiren Dashimaki Reservations

Queuing for Miki Keiren

Mishimatei in Daimaru Department Store

Right around the corner from the west end of Nishiki is Daimaru Department Store which is also an excellent place to buy tasty things. Here, the man holding the sign shows where the end of the line currently is for people waiting to buy their Mishima-tei fine beef for Oshogatsu dinner. I took this photo about 4:30pm when they were nearly sold out and therefore the line was short. On the 30th and up until early afternoon on the 31st, the line would be hundreds of people long, taking hours buy some Mishima-tei beef, which many people are perfectly willing to do.