Asakusa Umezono

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.