Story Famous Hiroshima Confectionery Souvenirs by JNTO on 04 January 2018

When visiting Hiroshima, there’s no shortage of unique souvenirs to take back home. These range from savory senbei (rice crackers) to sweet red bean cakes.

Momiji Manju

Baked in the shape of maple leaves, momiji manju is a famous dessert created in Miyajima in the early 1900s as a local specialty to represent Momijidani, its famous maple leaf-viewing spot. Traditionally, these desserts have a sweet red bean paste filling, although these days you can find matcha, cheese, custard or chocolate. While popular in Miyajima where you can see the production process, they are available across the prefecture.

Shakushi Senbei

A popular souvenir from Hiroshima is the shakushi (rice ladle), which is a good luck charm from Miyajima with a history dating back to 1700 when shakushi made with sacred wood allegedly brought fortune to people who ate with it. Today, there is also an edible version in the form of Shakushi Senbei – rice crackers in the shape of ladles. Imprinted with well wishes for safety, happiness and more, these savory souvenirs also double up as good luck snacks.

Monaka

Monaka consists of a wafer shell filled with sweet bean paste, and in Hiroshima you can get the ‘good luck monaka’, the shell of which is imprinted with the characters ‘crane’ and ‘turtle’ to express joy. Tsurukame Monaka is known for its less-sweet bean paste, and also produces seasonal monaka featuring sake-flavored bean paste in autumn and winter.

Oyster Crackers

Hiroshima is famous for its oysters, and Marugoto Oyster Crackers are produced in Akitsu-cho, a town famous for its potatoes and oysters. The dough is made with a high-grade potato known for its starchiness and sweetness and then baked with whole oysters.

Calbee

Calbee prawn crackers originated from Hiroshima, and there is a Snack Kitchen My Calbee in Youme Town where you can grab a fresh pack of crunchy Kappa Ebisen snacks which are fried right at the kitchen. They come in a variety of flavors which change according to season, including the “Special”, made of wild Seto Inland Sea shrimp. It’s the only place you can get the Mitsugake Kappa Ebisen Karin, which comes in five flavors like Setouchi Lemon Tea and Green Tea.

Lemon products

Hiroshima produces more than half of Japan’s lemons in the Setoda area and there are plenty of lemon-flavored souvenirs available. The most popular is a madeleine lemon cake which contains juice that is kneaded into the dough baked in the shape of a lemon. You can also get Hassaku Jelly which is made with fresh hassaku, a local grapefruit-sized citrus.

Sake sweets

Hiroshima is one of Japan’s top three producing areas of sake, and Saijo is a mecca for Japanese sake connoisseurs. Not only do the breweries produce quality ginjo-shu (high-grade sake made with rice polished to 60%), they also make different sweets containing sake, like sake manju (sake-infused dough with red bean filling), sake fruit cake, and sake karinto (fried dough snack coated with sake lees).