木村や Kimuraya Bakery in Ginza, Tokyo, Japan ......... the creator of the anpan

The banner up there spells Kimuraya, Ginza main store. A consistent crowd will form around the counter where the staff take orders from the crowd. What's selling like hot cakes in Kimuraya?

Covered by the crowd of eager folks were boxes of buns of different flavors and in one of them the original Anpan (Japanese sweet bun filled with red bean paste). It was Kimuraya's founder, Yosubei Kimura, whom in the pursuit of improving the taste of bread for Japanese using westernized bread making techniques, created the all time popular Anpan. That was in 1874. Since then, the anpan bun was included as part of Japanese food culture. Different fillings like sesame, white bean and chestnut for the sweet bun were created to suit the diversity of taste.

This is the main store in Ginza where we can observe a consistent stream of customer. Just standing outside for 5 minutes, one can attest to the popularity of the Kimuraya buns.

This is the one with red bean filling with a piece of salted sakura blossom pressed into the top of the bun that it's embedded in the  little crack just above the red bean filling. One of the original flavors since it all started.

This is the apple flavored with sake filled inside the bun. I like the taste with the strong fragrance of sake.

4-5-7 Ginza, Chuuou-ku, Tokyo
東京都中央区銀座 4-5-7
Ginza, Tokyo, Japan

Kimuraya Website