Kyoto (Wagashi)

Kyoto is one of Japan’s three historically recognized wagashi capitals, and its version of the craft, kyo-gashi, grew under conditions unlike the other two: a formal licensing system rather than a single patron’s personal taste. Kyo-gashi began as offerings made for temples and shrines before becoming a fixture of Imperial Court life, and the city eventually formalized who was allowed to sell sweets at all. Of 248 shops citywide licensed to sell sugar and confectionery, only 28 held the further, specific license to supply the imperial family directly, a genuinely exclusive tier layered on top of an already limited trade.

Sasaya Iori, founded in 1716, is one of the clearest surviving examples of that system. Its founder was originally a confectioner in the castle town of Tamaru, in Ise Province, recognized for his skill and specifically called to Kyoto to serve the Imperial Court. The shop has produced seasonal sweets for the Old Imperial Palace, Buddhist temples, Shinto shrines, and heads of tea schools continuously since. Today it’s counted as the fourth-oldest surviving royally appointed confectioner from the Edo period, and it belongs to Kasho-kai, an active group formed by 20 of the original 28 royally licensed shops that are still operating.

That licensing structure, not simply Kyoto’s centuries as Japan’s political and cultural capital, is the specific mechanism behind kyo-gashi’s reputation for refinement: a limited number of shops competing for the same elite clientele, generation after generation, rather than a broad market selling sweets to anyone who could pay.