"Edible Incense" by Kameya Kiyonaga, Kyoto, Japan's Oldest Sweet Shop

Seijō-kankidan, or "Edible Incense"

by Kameya Kiyonaga, Kyoto, Japan's Oldest Sweet Shop

On an afternoon in Kyoto, Japan, our taxi dropped us off in front of Kameya Kiyonaga, a 400-year-old sweet shop located in the historical geisha district of Gion. It is the only shop remaining in the old imperial capital that continues to make Kyoto's oldest traditional sweet.

Known as "edible incense", these fried dumplings have a long history of royalty and religion and are still made using the original ancient recipe.

 

"edible incense" by Kameya Kiyonaga, Kyoto, Japan's oldest sweet shop

Kameya Kiyonaga was established in 1617 and quickly made a name for itself as one of Kyoto's finest confectioners. By the late 19th century, the shop was so prestigious that it was named just one of 28 shops in all of Japan permitted to present sweets to the emperor.

Today, the shop makes and sells a small variety of traditional Japanese sweets, but they are most famous for their seijō-kankidan, a type of fried dumpling known as "edible incense".

Kyoto, Japan's 400-year-old sweet shop

Seijō-kankidan, also known as danki, or “ball of joy”, has roots reaching back to the Nara period (710–794), when Japan adopted deep-fried pastries from Tang China. Yet the sweet’s origins lie even farther west in India, where its ancestor, modak, is still made for the deity Ganesha during the Ganesh Chaturthi Festival.

Carried across Asia via the Silk Road and preserved in Japanese Buddhist tradition, this confection is now extremely rare, but Kameya Kiyonaga continues to make it using an ancient recipe passed down from generation to generation over hundreds of years. The little parcels of rice-flour dough are filled with a red bean paste kneaded to incorporate seven kinds of incense and deep-fried in sesame oil.

We bought two of the edible incense, along with a handful of other traditional Japanese sweets, then headed back to our hotel room to sample them alongside a cup of tea.

edible incense in Kyoto, Japan

The edible incense had a very crispy and hard exterior, but the inside was super soft. The filling was sweet and definitely tasted the way that incense smells. I could for sure get notes of sandalwood, cinnamon, and camphor. I'm not entirely sure what the other four ingredients are, but they were definitely very strong and aromatic. I liked the sweets, but maybe more for the novelty than for anything else.

edible incense paste in a crispy pastry

After finishing our edible incense, we moved on to the next sweet. Next, we tried kyo-oboro, a thin, soft, and chewy white miso and sugar flavored wafer cracker.

kyo-oboro, white miso and sugar flavored wafer

Next up was kuran, a crispy red bean biscuit.

kuran, crispy red bean biscuit

After that, we tried kuri-kuri, a chestnut paste bun with sesame seeds. The chestnut paste was thick and smooth and had an excellent texture. It wasn't overly sweet, which I liked.

kuri-kuri, a chestnut paste bun with sesame seeds

Finally, we tried the yokan, a brown sugar cake with walnut. Of all of the sweets we had, it was probably my favorite. It was rich and sweet, and the texture of the walnuts gave the otherwise soft and chewy cake a nice crunch.

yokan, brown sugar cake with walnut

Location

Kameya Kiyonaga is located at 534 Gionmachi Minamigawa, Higashiyama Ward, Kyoto, 605-0074, Japan.

Kameya Kiyonaga, the oldest sweet shop in Kyoto, Japan