Information of Shops

Yontora

Founded in 1910, Yontora has been dealing in vegetables and fruits, mainly Kyoto vegetables, for about 110 years. Its main business is wholesale to ryotei (traditional Japanese-style restaurants) and other restaurants, but it also focuses on retail sales in the store and online sales. When ordering produce to be sent from the store for gifts or for your home, they will ask you about your budget and the number of family members, and will pack seasonal items for you.

• vegetables
• fruits

Uoyoshi

“We mainly wholesale to food establishments, but we also do retail. The shop was founded around 1933, so it has been doing business in Nishiki for nearly 90 years. The store's motto is ‘simple is the best,’” says the 30-year-old owner who has taken over the family business since he was 18 years old. “That is why we only deal in wild fish. We do not make or sell processed fish either.”

• fresh fish

Hamohide Nishiki market main store

The owner, who was born into a family running a fish shop in Nishiki Market, known as “the kitchen of Kyoto,” became independent and opened Hamohide in 2017. “Though it was a hamo (pike conger eel) shop, the prawns started to sell well!” he says.
Shrimp, prawn, and prawn skewers with their bright red colors are lined up at the front of the shop.

• processed fish
• restaurant
• sake, whisky, beer

Toritoyo

It has been about 90 years since Toritoyo opened in Nishiki Market. It is a shop with a warm atmosphere run by a mother and son. The glass case in the storefront gives the impression that they specialize in poultry, but they also provide river fish. The river fish is purchased directly from Shiga Prefecture. Many of the dishes they offer are homemade, such as ayu sweetfish simmered in sweet soy sauce and moroko (a fish endemic to Lake Biwa) simmered in soy sauce. Ultimately, however, duck is most popular at this store.

• chicken
• deli

Hosokawa

Hosokawa is a retailer offering clothing, hand towels, handkerchiefs, specially processed T-shirts, and even monpe (Japanese work pants). It is also the only store in Kyoto where you can buy food models. The well-made models for pudding, fruit parfait, and other foods are a marvel to look at.

• household goods

Nandaimon Nishiki branch

This restaurant is a hidden gem, tucked away a bit from the street of Nishiki Market. This is a Japanese beef steak restaurant operated by Nandaimon, a long-established yakiniku restaurant founded over 60 years ago. You can enjoy high-quality wagyu beef in a relaxed Japanese-style atmosphere. Only black wagyu beef is used. In particular, the fillets and sirloins are A5-grade Hirai beef from the Kyoto-Tanba-bokujo farm.

• restaurant

Minoyoshi

In a word, Minoyoshi is a cereal store, but that does not describe it wholly. It has beans such as black soya beans and azuki beans meant to be cooked at home. It has confectionery ingredients such as Wasanbon sugar and kanbaiko rice flour that are used in Japanese confectionery shops. It also has dried bracken fern starch and frozen konjac jelly used in kaiseki cuisine for special tea ceremonies. There are also a variety of items that, at first glance, even locals wonder what they are used for.

• cereals
• Japanese sweets

Fufusa Rouho

This is a specialty store of Kyoto-style nama-fu (raw cakes of wheat gluten used in cooking. Unlike most fu in Japan that are sold as dried products, in Kyoto, they are often used in the form of soft, chewy cakes.) that manufactures, wholesales, and retails fu at this location. The store dates back to the Tempo era (1831-1845). It sells a variety of fu, including shiro (white), awa (millet), and yomogi (Japanese mugwort). Other products include "fu dengaku" (fu seasoned with dengaku miso) and "fu manju" (an aonori seaweed fu bun filled with red bean paste).

• soy food
• Japanese sweets

Kuwatou

A lineup of freshly cooked food invites passersby. The charm of this restaurant is that you can enjoy grilled and deep-fried seafood skewers all year round. It is a perfect place for when you feel a little hungry. This is an eat-in and take-out establishment, so you can eat the freshly cooked food in the shop, or you can take it home to enjoy.

• processed fish
• deli
• restaurant
• sake, whisky, beer

Nishiki Takakuraya

Takakuraya’s owner stands by the notion that “Kyoto pickles are not salty.” Takakuraya’s lightly pickled Daifuku hakusai —a variety of Chinese cabbage with a yellow core—is pickled in a low-sodium kelp stock to preserve the flavor of the sweet core. The red-leafed daikon radish, Shizumurasaki, which is grown only by one farm in Kumiyama, Kyoto Prefecture, has a refined taste that spreads in the mouth.

• pickles