Toraya Kyoto Ichijo

The black-tiled roof and clean, white plaster walls of the Toraya shop at Ichijo mark the site where the company served the Imperial Court for centuries. While the current building is a modern construction, it stands on the exact ground where the Kurokawa family began selling wagashi sweets to the emperor and his entourage in the late sixteenth century. When the capital moved to Tokyo in eighteen sixty-nine, the confectioners followed, but they kept this location as a memory of their imperial roots.