According to shitamachi-bred people, one of their happy memories is cheap sweets they had in their childhood. Ame (hard candies), okoshi (sticky rice cakes), arare (rice crackers shaped as cubes), karinto (sweet and deep-fried snack made of flour)…Many of those cheap sweets have been produced for a few hundred years, which may surprise Americans.
In Europe, there are many wonderful sweets with histories in the countries such as France and Austria, but they were the sweets exclusively for royalty and the aristocracy. On the other hand, in Japan, since the Edo period, sweets of the shitamachi area have long been popular among ordinary people, who were able to buy many of those sweets with the change in their pockets.

Why not explore Japanese traditional sweets in Tokyo Soramachi?
‘nikinokashi’ on the second floor is a confectionery wholesaler. You can see many old-fashioned cheap sweets there.

Craftsmen in the shitamachi area are good at doing detailed work.
Before World War II, the area around the Tokyo Skytree Town prospered with many small glass workshops. The glass industry remains as the area’s local industry.

Among its glass products, the one called Edo Kiriko, finely engraved cut glasses, would be a perfect souvenir.
At ‘Hasegawa Saketen’ on the first floor, delicate pieces of Edo Kiriko glassware are on display and for sale along with sake and other kinds of liquor. Why don’t you get Edo Kiriko cut glass items with some tasty Japanese sake?
Edo Kiriko glassware is also offered at ‘watashi no heya’ on the first floor.

Old and new shitamachi items. Both are stylishly displayed in the stores, and we are sure you’ll have a good time even if you just to window-shop.
Please come and visit this newborn shitamachi.

Reported by Yukari Aoike and Akiko Sugahara, Sugahara Institute