This is a series on stylish souvenirs selected by Kyoto's chic people. Our seventh installment features Yamanaka Koji, president of GENETO Architects. His recommended gift is the "Mushiyashinai" soy milk and soy sauce pudding.
Yamanaka is based in Kyoto and Tokyo and designs residential, commercial, office, and retail spaces. His recent work includes the "ART MOBILE," a traveling gallery that travels the world, and he has held exhibitions using the ART MOBILE at Bali Denpasar Airport and other locations.
"Mushiyashinai" is a Kyoto dialect word meaning "to feed your hunger." It's a light snack that satisfies your hunger or satiety. The shop's display case is lined with cakes as cute as temari sushi, perfect for Mushiyashinai. They also offer a wide variety of sweets using Japanese ingredients such as matcha, wasanbon, and bean paste, making them popular with both locals and tourists. Koji Yamanaka, who commutes between Tokyo and Kyoto, often uses this shop as a gift for clients in Tokyo. He usually chooses long-lasting sweets like matcha financiers made with soy milk and okara, or black bean almond chocolate coated with matcha and black bean kinako, but for those meeting shortly, he brings soy milk and soy sauce pudding. This soy milk pudding, which is as smooth as silken tofu and topped with a brown sugar soy sauce syrup, looks just like real silken tofu when served on a plate. The homemade soy sauce syrup has an exquisite balance of spiciness and sweetness, and costs 350 yen each. "If I'm bringing something from Kyoto, I want to make sure it's authentically Kyoto-like, but familiar sweets wouldn't be interesting. Kyoto tends to have a conservative image of 'Japanese,' but in fact, Kyoto has absorbed a lot of Western culture since the Meiji period," says Yamanaka.
The charm of Kyoto lies in the ambivalent mixture of old and new. Mushiyashinai's products are sweets that reflect this urban context, and the reason we recommend them is because "we value tradition while incorporating new elements, which is similar to the design concept we aim for."
They are also on sale at JR Kyoto Isetan SUVACO inside Kyoto Station, so you can conveniently purchase them just before boarding your Shinkansen. The store is located at 78 Ichijoji Satono Nishicho, Sakyo Ward, Kyoto City. It is close to Eiden Ichijoji Station, which departs from Demachiyanagi. We recommend stopping by when you are visiting Shugakuin, Shisendo, etc. Business hours are from 10:00 to 20:00. Closed on Mondays (open on public holidays, closed the following Tuesday).
