Two hundred years, from a corner of Kyoto.
The spirit of suki — given a single quiet form.
On Horikawa-Ichijo, in the eighth year of Bunsei.
In 1825, the eighth year of Bunsei, the first Yoshiharu opened a small shop in Kyoto, near Seimei Shrine, on the quiet stretch of Horikawa-Ichijo. From the very first day, the storefront refused ostentation: an earthen wall, a single noren curtain, and a bowl of plain hot water set before the wagashi. That simple welcome remains our way today.
From those early days we have crafted ceremonial wagashi for the tea masters of the Senke schools — confections made one at a time, by hand, shifting in form with the seasons.
Two centuries later, in the same quarter and in the same shop, we continue to send out our wagashi in the same quietness.
Beside the tea, for generations.
For generations the Senke tea masters of Kyoto have entrusted us with the principal sweet of the tea ceremony. Our signature confection, Shukasei, is the dignified piece served at the koicha (thick tea) seat — a quiet emblem of the house, joining the heart of host and guest.
For each gathering we read the hanging scroll, the chosen flower, even the day's weather, and tune the colour and form of the sweet to all of these without a word. This discipline is recorded by the present master in the family confection-book, brushed by hand, as it has been for two hundred years.
To answer the wishes of a tea master is to imagine not only the sweet itself, but the whole space in which it will sit. That training, we have not let lapse.
A small whim, in a corner of the storehouse.
Perhaps it is the proximity of Seimei Shrine. Whatever the reason, our storehouse has long held a quiet legend: a small tengu lives there and watches over the making of our wagashi. Each generation of master has carried this story forward by word of mouth, as a single, smiling fragment of the suki — the tea-room's playful spirit.
To honour the formality of the tea seat and yet, on the back of an incense container or in the corner of a hanging scroll, to slip in a touch of charm: this is the Kyoto tea master's quiet game, and it is our discipline as well.
Within two centuries of stillness, just one such note. As we step into a new era, Hoshiya Yoshiharu carries this small guardian — sometimes in the form of a sweet, sometimes in a brushed line — kept always in modest measure.
A trace of our years
- 1825 (Bunsei 8)
Yoshiharu I founds the shop on Horikawa-Ichijo.
- Early Showa
We design longer-lasting confections to bring "the stillness of Kyoto" to distant places.
- 1985 (Showa 60)
Yoshiharu II succeeds to the name.
- 2010 (Heisei 22)
We revive the signature confection, Shukasei.
- 2024 (Reiwa 6)
We release Manju Tengu.
- 2026 (Reiwa 8)
We open our official online presence.
Hoshiya Yoshiharu, Kyoto
- Address
- Horikawa-Ichijo, Kamigyo-ku, Kyoto
- Telephone
- +81 75-XXX-XXXX
- Hours
- Open 10:00 – 18:00 / Closed Wednesdays
- Notes
- Near Seimei Shrine, in our quiet shop on Horikawa-Ichijo.
Horikawa-Ichijo, Kyoto
a few steps from Seimei Shrine