Description
The cafe originated in 1854, the year Commodore Matthew Perry's ”Black Ships” arrived for the second time in Yokosuka City in Kanagawa, when a tea house opened its doors in one corner of Baion-in, a branch temple of Senso-ji. The very first awa zenzai was received well and became Tokyo's specialty. Since then, the tea house has been carrying on traditions as a sweets cafe for 160 years. Umezono's awa zenzai uses mochi kibi, a type of proso millet, instead of awa, which is foxtail millet. This is a sumptuous sweet dish with a mochi rice cake made by half-polishing mochi kibi, pounding it, and steaming it and served with slow-cooked, strained azuki bean paste in a bowl. The tea house appeared in Kafu Nagai's famous novel, titled Odoriko (The Dancing Girl), in a passage that reads: ”I tried to eat oshiruko (zenzai) at Umezono, but the cafe was packed, and I could not get in...” This shows how popular the cafe was back then. The cafe's main outlet in Asakusa is a 2-minute walk from Asakusa Station on the Tobu Isesaki Line. There are other outlets in department stores in Tokyo and at the Haneda Airport.
Location Information
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- Address
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1-31-12, Asakusa, Taitou-ku, Tokyo, 111-0032
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- Nearest Station
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Asakusa Station
・ Tokyo Metro Ginza Line
・ Toei Asakusa Line
・ Tobu Isesaki Line (Tobu Sky Tree Line)
・ Tsukuba Express
Exit 1
2 minutes on foot
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- Phone Number
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03-3841-7580Available languagesonly in Japanese
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- Hours
- Every day 10:00am - 8:00pm
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- Closed
- Irregular holidays
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