19 Classic and Popular Kyoto Souvenirs You Should Definitely Buy

Shogoin Yatsuhashi Sohonten is a famous shop for yatsuhashi, one of Kyoto's classic souvenirs.
While the baked confection type "Shogoin Yatsuhashi" and "Hijiri," which wraps bean paste in nama yatsuhashi, are well known, "Nama Yatsuhashi," which was released before "Hijiri," is also a popular item with many fans.
Made with simple ingredients such as rice flour, sugar, and cinnamon, this sweet offers a soft bite along with the pleasantly chewy texture of rice flour and the refined flavor of cinnamon, making it a perfect match for tea.

"Oil-Blotting Paper" is the signature product of Yojiya, a long-established cosmetics maker founded in 1904.
Simply press it lightly onto your skin before touching up your makeup to absorb excess oil and help makeup go on more smoothly.
By repeatedly pounding finely made special Japanese paper with a foil-beating machine, the paper fibers are activated, creating a soft feel that is gentle on the skin and excellent absorbency.

This signature product is offered by Malebranche, a Western-style confectionery shop founded in 1982 with its main store in Kyoto Kitayama.
Made by baking langue de chat cookies with Uji tea, including tea from Shirakawa in Uji, Kyoto, and then sandwiching them with original white chocolate, the flavor is truly one of a kind.
Today, it is even described as a classic Kyoto sweet.

This baumkuchen is carefully baked by skilled artisans using Kyoto-style ingredients such as matcha and soy milk.
With shops at popular sightseeing spots such as Kiyomizuzaka, the approach to Kiyomizu-dera Temple, Arashiyama, and Kyoto Tower, it enjoys tremendous popularity as a Kyoto souvenir.
It is made with carefully selected ingredients, including Uji matcha from Morihan, a long-established tea shop founded in 1836, soy milk made with Kyoto groundwater, and wheat from Hokkaido.

Otabe is a famous Kyoto confection made by wrapping homemade chunky red bean paste in nama yatsuhashi dough. Since its debut in 1966, it has become a standard Kyoto souvenir alongside hard baked yatsuhashi made by baking rice flour dough like a cracker.
It is particular about carefully selected ingredients from specific producers. The nama yatsuhashi dough uses rice flour made from specially cultivated Koshihikari rice from Kyoto and Fukui prefectures. For the chunky red bean paste, which determines the flavor, specially cultivated adzuki beans from Tokachi, Hokkaido, are cooked at the company's own factory. The product is individually wrapped, making it easy to hand out as a souvenir.

In Kyoto, where long-established confectionery shops fiercely compete, "Senju Senbei" is the product that made Kyogashidokoro Kogetsu famous in one leap.
Since its release in 1963, it has been a long-selling product for more than half a century, popular not only as a Kyoto souvenir but also nationwide. In 2022, the shop pursued its deliciousness even further and created this "Premium Senju Senbei."
Using a method of sandwiching cream between wave-shaped cookies, made possible by importing machinery from Germany and breaking with conventional ideas of Japanese sweets, Senju Senbei has continued to be loved by many customers.

This famous Kyoto confection was created by the second-generation owner of the beloved local long-established shop Ajarimochi Honpo Mangetsu and released in 1922.
Made with ingredients such as glutinous rice flour, eggs, and sugar, it is modeled after the woven hats worn by high-ranking monks training on Mt. Hiei. Inside the secret dough is plenty of chunky red bean paste made with Tanba Dainagon beans.
The chewy, moist outer layer and the homemade bean paste, gently sweetened and cooked to perfection, are in exquisite harmony, making it easy to see why it has been loved for so many years.

This long-established Uji tea shop, founded in 1854, has its main store in Uji and boasts a history of Approx. 170 years.
The shop's most popular menu item, "Nama Cha Jelly," served at stores with cafés offering various sweets such as parfaits and zenzai, is also available as a take-home product, so you can enjoy the shop's flavor at home.

Itoh Kyuemon is a tea shop founded in 1832 in the late Edo period.
Known for selling high-quality Uji matcha sourced from contracted farmers, it has also gained popularity in recent years by successively releasing a wide range of Japanese and Western-style matcha sweets.
Among its lineup of Approx. 200 products, one especially recommended item is "Uji Matcha Daifuku," which wraps rich matcha bean paste in daifuku dough.
Made with carefully selected Uji matcha and wasanbon sugar from Shikoku, the matcha bean paste is slowly cooked by artisans and is characterized by its rich aroma and elegant sweetness.

Yokan from Kameya Yoshinaga, a long-established Kyoto confectionery shop founded in 1803 that offers a wide variety of seasonal wagashi.
Used in the confection-making is Samegai Water, one of Kyoto's famous spring waters, which wells up in front of the shop.
Using this high-quality water enhances the aroma of the adzuki beans, and that quality is reflected in the refined flavor of Kameya Yoshinaga's yokan, made with simple ingredients.

Ogurasanso is a long-established specialty rice cracker shop with its main store in Nagaokakyo City, Kyoto Prefecture. It offers products inspired by the world of poetry connected to the Ogura Hyakunin Isshu and Heian culture.
"Karuta Hyakunin Isshu" is also one of its signature confections themed on the Ogura Hyakunin Isshu. Ten types of arare and rice crackers are individually wrapped in packages designed around 100 waka poems. The different shapes for each flavor are also worth noting.
On the front of each individual package is the latter half of a Hyakunin Isshu poem, while the back shows the full poem, allowing you to learn about the Hyakunin Isshu while enjoying the snacks. With their colorful appearance and elegant contents, they are also very popular as gifts.

Ogurasanso is a long-established specialty rice cracker shop based in Nagaokakyo City, Kyoto Prefecture, offering a wide range of products inspired by the Ogura Hyakunin Isshu and songs rooted in Heian culture.
"Karuta Hyakunin Isshu" is one of the items inspired by the Ogura Hyakunin Isshu. Ten flavors of arare crackers and senbei are individually wrapped in packaging designed around 100 waka poems. Along with the wide variety of unique flavors, the different shapes depending on the flavor are also worth a look. With its vivid appearance and elegant contents, it is a very popular gift choice.

A new-style Kyoto candy brand created by Imanishi Seika, a long-established Kyoto candy maker with more than 140 years of history.
With "color" as its theme, it creates and sells beautiful, cute candies that use multiple colors instead of the usual two-color finish for Kyoto candy, giving them a glasswork-like appearance.
The beautiful colors are achieved through a unique fusion of European coloring techniques and skills that seasoned artisans have preserved over many years.

IRODORI is a new brand launched in 2015 by Tsuruya Yoshinobu, a Kyoto confectionery artisan shop in Nishijin, Kyoto, founded in 1803.
It has attracted attention for colorful and cute new-style wagashi, such as monaka like macarons and square-shaped yokan, which add a modern essence to craftsmanship rooted in tradition.
Its popular "Kohakuto" stands out for its box of five pastel-like colors that is delightful just to look at.

This signature item from Kyoto Gion Anon offers a new type of East-meets-West sweet based on techniques for making anko red bean paste.
It is also very popular as a souvenir or gift.
The reason is that you can make the monaka with your own preferred balance and enjoy a flavor that blends Japanese and Western tastes.

A new confection proposal from Kameya Yoshinaga, a long-established confectionery shop founded in 1803.
With the innovative idea of putting yokan on toast instead of anko on toast, this product lets you easily enjoy Ogura butter toast.
The 2.5 mm-thick sliced chunky red bean yokan is topped with butter yokan accented with Okinawan salt and poppy seeds. The chunky red bean paste is luxuriously made with high-quality Tanba Dainagon adzuki beans.

Created in 2015, this popular item from Bel Amer Kyoto Bettei proposes chocolates with Japanese tastes under the concept of "sharing Kyoto with the world."
These stick-shaped chocolates look almost like ice cream bars at first glance.
One of their main features is the wide variety of ingredient combinations, with each type offering a different flavor and texture.

The signature product of this Kyoto-born Danish specialty shop is "Marble Danish," carefully baked one by one by pastry chefs.
This Danish is finished by kneading various flavors into the dough, and because it has a longer shelf life than regular bread, it is also popular as a souvenir or gift. Among the regular flavors, the especially popular "Kyoto Sanshoku" is a distinctly Kyoto-style loaf made with sweet-tart strawberry dough and matcha from the long-established Uji tea specialty shop Gion Tsujiri.

Kisshokaryo is a popular confectionery shop in Kyoto. Its "Kinano Miya" brand, made with fragrant kinako from carefully selected Japanese soybeans, has been well received as a Kyoto souvenir. "Kinano Miya Chocolat" is a Japanese-Western fusion sweet made by sandwiching a flavorful special chocolate bar with deep-roasted kinako between crunchy cookies.
It offers a rich, toasty flavor with mild sweetness and a hint of saltiness.