Akafuku (赤福) is a Japanese

pastry Pastry refers to a variety of Dough, doughs (often enriched with fat or eggs), as well as the sweet and savoury Baking, baked goods made from them. The dough may be accordingly called pastry dough for clarity. Sweetened pastries are often descr ...

shop founded in 1707, during the

Edo period The , also known as the , is the period between 1600 or 1603 and 1868 in the history of Japan, when the country was under the rule of the Tokugawa shogunate and some 300 regional ''daimyo'', or feudal lords. Emerging from the chaos of the Sengok ...

. Still active and family-owned, its longevity allows it to be part of the

Henokiens The Henokiens Association () is an international association of family-owned companies that have existed for 200 years or more, with at least one family member still involved in management.. Its name is derived from the biblical patriarch Enoch ...

. Akafuku first developed as a

teahouse A teahouse or tearoom (also tea room) is an establishment which primarily serves tea and other light refreshments. A tea room may be a room set aside in a hotel, especially for serving afternoon tea, or may be an establishment that only ser ...

for pilgrims going to

Ise Grand Shrine The , located in Ise, Mie Prefecture of Japan, is a Shinto shrine dedicated to the solar goddess Amaterasu Ōmikami and the grain goddess Toyouke-hime (Toyouke Omikami). Also known simply as , Ise Shrine is a shrine complex composed of many Shi ...

. It is the place of origin for akafuku mochi, a type of

rice cake A rice cake may be any kind of food item made from rice that has been shaped, condensed, or otherwise combined into a single object. A wide variety of rice cakes exist in many different cultures in which rice is eaten. Common variations include ...

s filled with

sweet bean paste Sweet bean paste is a food ingredient used throughout East Asian cuisine, primarily as a filling for sweet desserts and pastries. Production The beans are usually boiled without sugar, mashed, and diluted into a slurry. The slurry is then str ...

. It closed twice in its 300+ year history: during World War II when sugar became scarce, and in 2007 after authorities found that the company had tampered with expiration labels. Masutane Hamada, the 11th head of the business resigned after the scandal, but returned to the position in 2017. He resigned again in 2020 after it was found that he had allowed the company to supply "anti-social groups" (a

euphemism A euphemism ( ) is when an expression that could offend or imply something unpleasant is replaced with one that is agreeable or inoffensive. Some euphemisms are intended to amuse, while others use bland, inoffensive terms for concepts that the u ...

for the

Yakuza , also known as , are members of transnational organized crime syndicates originating in Japan. The Japanese police and media (by request of the police) call them , while the yakuza call themselves . The English equivalent for the term ''yak ...

, or Japanese mafia) with alcohol bearing their logos between 2000 and 2012. Akafuku Mochi

In the 1990s the company invested more than US$120 million to develop the Okage Yokocho district of period stores which became a popular destination, driving the number of annual visitors from 200,000 to 3.4 million.

References

Food and drink in Japan Henokiens companies Japanese companies established in 1707 {{Japan-company-stub