Claiming back roots: Kawagoe Green Tea Confectionery

Kawagoe’s official traditional foods are eel and sweet potato and it is also famous for Kaiseki. However, if you have been to Kawagoe in recent years, you may have noticed that Green Tea flavoured produce is almost as common as Sweet Potato produce. It is not uncommon in Japan for an area to be famous for a particular flavour, but it is usually because the key ingredient is grown in the region. Nowadays, Kawagoe does not harvest much Sweet Potato, but it is still an important hub of the vegetable as it imports it from all over the country. 


So, you may have wondered why Kawagoe makes Green Tea products with its obvious lack of green tea plantations. If you are thinking it is because the Sayama Green Tea region, the most notable green tea production area in the Kanto region, is nearby you are on the right track. However, it is not just because the Sayama tea plantations are nearby, but moreover because Sayama tea was in fact born in Kawagoe. Yes, years before the Sayama plantations took off, a whole thousand years before, green tea was actually produced in Kawagoe, not Sayama. In recent years, many shops in Kawagoe have latched onto this marketing opportunity and our claiming the literal and figurative roots of Sayama green tea, providing a selection of Green tea flavoured produce and developing the area as a Green Tea confectionery crux in the Kanto area.

Brief History of Kawagoe / Sayama Green Tea

It is said that tea first came to Japan in the Jomon period, but the first recordings of tea aren’t until much later, in the current Shiga prefecture in the 9th century. Kawagoe’s recorded history starts in 830 when a priest Jikaku brought tea seeds from Mt Hiei (Kyoto) and planted them in Kawagoe. He planted the seeds in Muryojuji Temple, which the current day Kitain and Nakain Temples were part of. The seeds were planted and cultivated for medicinal purposes, for at the time the primary use of green tea was to rejuvenate and refresh the body. It was believed that green tea could reduce a fever, detox the body and work as a diuretic. There are no further records of the Kawagoe plantation, but there are traces of the old tea plantation in areas of Kawagoe. It is believed that Kawagoe tea spread to the Sayama district at the beginning of the Edo period and was reintroduced as “Sayama Tea” in 1802. The Nakain Temple in Kawagoe proudly boasts a stone monument with “Sayama Tea was born here” etched into it. Beside it is another stone monument with a brief history of green tea inscribed. 

Green Tea in Kawagoe today

The surge of green tea produce, particularly confectionery, available in Kawagoe is quite recent. Some of the green tea shops have been around for centuries, but some of the shops offering green tea confectionery are quite new or the introduction of the contemporary flavoured confectionery has only happened in the last five years. Here is a selection of some of the more notable green tea confectioners in the Bell Tower area of Kawagoe Ware / Storehouse district. 

•  Nagamine-En 
  
  Named after the tea plantation from where the produce comes, Nagamine-en is located at the very end of the main strip of the Warehouse / Storehouse district, near to Penny Candy Alley. The tea farm is in Tsurugashima which borders Kawagoe and is close to Sayama. They opened the store in Kawagoe around four  years ago. The first floor is a shop and the second floor is a green tea café Sayama Cha Café Wahouan. As you can see from the photo above, they have a great selection of Green Tea flavoured treats.
  
  Hours: 9.30 am to 6 pm seven days a week Address: 2 −2 Motomachi, Kawagoe, Saitama Prefecture 350-0062
  Phone: 049-223-3210
  Website: nagamine-en.jp
  Access: Approximately 25 minute walk from Hon-Kawagoe station. All the tourist buses as well as some public Tobu buses (numbers 01, 02, 03, 04 and 09) pass close to the shop. The tourist bus stops nearby outside the Kawagoe Festival Museum. The nearest bus stop on the regular public buses is Fuda-no-Tsuji bus stop. No parking available, but Rakuda Coin Parking Plaza is a minute walk away.
  
  
  
•  Sawawa
  
  Celebrating three years of business this month, Sawawa is currently one of the most popular green tea shops and confectioners in Kawagoe. They grind Kawagoecha in front of the shop in a stone mill. They have a great selection of green tea produce, including green tea flavoured baum kuchen, macaroons, pudding and their ever popular matcha flavoured ice-cream. There is a small seating area at the back of the shop, but most of their business is take-out.
  
  Hours: 10 am to 6 pm seven days a week
  Address: 7-6 Saiwaicho, Kawagoe, Saitama Prefecture 350-0063
  Phone: 049-227-6191
  Website: telacoya.co.jp
  Access: Approximately 20 minute walk from Hon-Kawagoe station. All the tourist buses as well as some public Tobu buses (numbers 01, 02, 03, 04 and 09) pass close to the shop. The tourist bus stops nearby outside the Kawagoe Festival Museum. The nearest bus stop on the regular public buses is Ichibangai bus stop. No parking available, but Rakuda Coin Parking Plaza is about a 5 minute walk away.
  
  
  
•  Hanakomichi 
  Hanakomichi is a small shop very near Kawagoe’s landmark bell tower. They only have a few green tea flavoured products, but they are all very delicious. They have lots of samples out so you can try for yourself. The green tea flavoured yaki-karinto, a type of deep fried Japanese snack of mainly from flour, brown sugar and yeast is particularly delectable.  The green tea gaufrette is equally palatable and both are fairly reasonably priced.
  
  Hours: 10- am to 5 pm seven days a week.
  Address: 8-2 Saiwaicho, Kawagoe, Saitama Prefecture 350-0063
  Phone: 049-223-7112
  Website: https://tabelog.com/saitama/A1103/A110303/11033944/
  Access: Approximately 20 minute walk from Hon-Kawagoe station. All the tourist buses as well as some public Tobu buses (numbers 01, 02, 03, 04 and 09) pass close to the shop. The tourist bus stops nearby outside the Kawagoe Festival Museum. The nearest bus stop on the regular public bus routes is Ichibangai bus stop. No parking available, but Rakuda Coin Parking Plaza is a few minutes walk away.
  
  
  
•  Fukuroya
  
  Located right beside Kawagoe’s landmark bell tower, Fukuroya enjoyed a boom a few years ago with a sweet made from a hybrid of traditional flavours: green tea meets dango with a dollop of red beans! It seems they no longer sell it, I am not surprised really as it wasn’t particularly palatable, but they are still very popular for their selection of green tea confectionery. Their iced green tea that can be purchased from a kiosk window on the street is possibly their current best seller. 
  
  Hours: 10 am to 7 pm Tuesday through Sunday, closed on Mondays.
  Address: 15-1 Saiwaicho, Kawagoe, Saitama Prefecture 350-0063
  Phone: 049-222-1103
  Website: fukuroya-kawagoe.com
  Access: Approximately 25 minute walk from Hon-Kawagoe station. All the tourist buses as well as some public Tobu buses (numbers 01, 02, 03, 04 and 09) pass close to the shop. The tourist bus stops nearby outside the Kawagoe Festival Museum. The nearest bus stop on the regular public buses is Ichibangai bus stop. No parking available, but Rakuda Coin Parking Plaza is a few minutes walk away.
  
  

This is just a small selection of the shops in one concentrated area around the bell tower of the storehouse district of Kawagoe. There are even more shops and cafes with green tea produce in other areas of the tourist district. That’s not to mention some of the museums with green tea related exhibits or the places you can experience the green tea ceremony or the occasional events organised to promote and celebrate Kawagoe’s roots in Sayama Tea. If you are visiting Kawagoe, why not enjoy a nice glass of iced green tea or try a matcha flavoured ice-cream, maybe buy some green tea baum kuchen to take home for others to try. 

This post is a special tea blog report, part of our Shizuoka Green Tea Guide, and a chance through City-Cost for bloggers in Japan to engage in new “Japan” experiences about which to create posts.