Relaxing Tea Ceremony with Exclusive Treats from a Historical Kyoto Confectioner

Sasaya-iori Villa Annex, Brainchild of 10th Generation Proprietress and Confectionery Purveyor Miyuki Tamaru

In 1716, confectioner Ihei Sasaya from Ise set up shop in Kyoto. His business Sasaya-iori went on to make sweets for shrines, temples, tea ceremony masters, and even the Imperial Palace. Today, this beloved three-century-old confectionery is such a fixture that there is nary a soul in the neighborhood who is not familiar with it. Its handmade offerings are popular as tea ceremony fare, souvenir gifts, presents for special occasions, and everyday snacks. 

The shop-curtain emblazoned with the character sasa, meaning “bamboo leaf,” bespeaks the shop’s long tradition

Sasaya-iori Villa Annex was created by Miyuki Tamaru, the 10th generation master of Sasaya-iori confectionery. Its delightful cafe space, located on the ground floor (shopping area) of Hotel Emion Kyoto, offers up a wide range of fare, including Western-style desserts, lunch, and afternoon tea snacks.

The villa annex’s sunny entrance

The Sasaraan Teahouse, an Authentic Urasenke Tea School Design

Tearoom Sasaraan opened in the summer of 2023 alongside Sasaya-iori’s Villa Annex within Hotel Emion Kyoto. To ensure utmost authenticity, the Urasenke Tea School supervised its construction down to the very materials. Accredited professional instructors will take you through the steps in a precious opportunity to learn all about the rich traditions of tea ceremony and traditional Japanese confectionery from passionate experts at the top of their fields.

Sasaraan, an oasis of tea ceremony on the hotel’s ground level

At the beginning, you will learn the significance of the anteroom, the garden, and how to enter through the nijiriguchi half-door: a traditional design feature that requires all visitors, regardless of social status, to enter with humility and leave the outside world. Follow your instructor’s model as you enter, gracefully climbing onto the tatami mats to enjoy a cup of matcha.

Enter the tearoom through the nijiriguchi half-door, the traditional ritual tearoom entrance which ensures that great and small alike enter with a humble bow

A Deep and Considered Look at the Traditional Tearoom, which Embodies its Master’s Philosophy

Tearooms, intended for tea masters to entertain their guests, are built with features that set them apart from more general purpose traditional Japanese rooms, and your instructor will explain this structural uniqueness and its historical origins. The wall scroll and flower display in the tokonoma alcove are a message from the master, welcoming guests to enjoy their time here. For example, budding blossoms symbolize hope and potential. The owner wishes for the life force of these flowers blossoming with the passage of time to reach the hearts of guests as a joyful vitality.

Small-group tea ceremonies where everyone can be at ease

Traditionally, tea ceremony guests would ask questions and the tea master answer, but in this experience your instructor will talk you through each nook and cranny of the ceremony with highly accessible explanations, creating an atmosphere that welcomes the absolute beginner as well as curious questions that might be harder to ask with a larger group. Feel free to enquire about whatever comes to mind.

The Art of Sipping and Snacking in Authentic Tea Ceremony, at a Storied Historical Confectioner’s Shop

After a chance to fully take in the tearoom, relax with a cup of matcha and a seasonal traditional confection made exclusively for this Wabunka plan.

Learn how to gracefully ply your kashikiri pastry knife and kaishi paper to enjoy the traditional delights of Japanese confectionery

As a confectionery specialty shop, Sasaya-iori has long offered its delectable treats to all levels of society, counting shrines, temples, tea ceremony masters, and even the Imperial Palace among its loyal customers. Enjoy a talk on the etiquette of eating these confections, such as how to handle the kashikiri pastry knife and kaishi serving paper, alongside delightful tales that only a centuries-old establishment can share.

With thorough instruction, even beginners will be at ease at every step

Warmth and Welcome in Every Detail

Sasaya-iori serves an original matcha blend alongside its signature sweets. A variety of matcha drinking bowls are prepared for every season. Many people may know that in tea ceremony, the bowl is rotated two clockwise quarter-turns before being drunk from, but even those who have seen this before may not know that this is intended to turn the “front” of the decorative pattern outward and away from the mouth while drinking.

Make your choice from the selection of gorgeous tea bowls, periodically updated

Tea ceremony is full of dos and don’ts, but a little knowledge of the historical background and reasons behind this customary etiquette will make them feel much more familiar, and help you get to the real central spirit of the rituals, which is all about hospitality.

Bask in the soothing aroma of green tea and the sweetness of its confectionery pairing

Sasaya-iori’s Villa Annex Signature Menu with Special Seating

When the tea ceremony is finished, delight in a parfait or mamekan bean agar jelly dessert at Sasaya-iori’s Villa Annex. The counter seating where this dessert is served is specially designed to mimic the aesthetics of a traditional tearoom, decorated with various special Sasaya-iori historical paraphernalia, including scrolls of calligraphy by the elders of the Imperial Family’s own family mausoleum temple Sennyuji.

Sumptuous parfaits offer varied layers of succulent textures and flavors (contents vary seasonally)

The Sasaya-iori parfait, so good it bears the shop name proudly, is an exquisitely thrilling little concoction of sweet bean paste, jelly, granola, shiratama mochi balls, and more crowned with the kanji character sasa, or bamboo leaf, from the shop’s name. Sasaya-iori’s Villa Annex makes its ingredients, including the adzuki red bean paste and agar, artisanally from scratch.

Sweet handmade bliss

Sasaya-iori’s mamekan dessert is an agar jelly dessert with sweet red field peas, topped with a mild-sweet black syrup. Choose your drink pairing from options like yuzu citrus soda or matcha tea latte.

Another Look at Japan’s Culture through Sweets and Tea Ceremony

Proprietress of Sasaya-iori Miyuki Tamaru holds seminars on such topics as traditional hospitality, Kyoto confectionery traditions, and etiquette. She hopes to make this charming side of Japanese culture known to a wider audience, and has been finding her efforts well-received. “I want these to be opportunities for guests to become better acquainted with Japanese culture, and think to themselves, ‘this really is a wonderful country.’” She sees the history and ritual etiquette of tea ceremony as a perfect subject to do this with, and as you experience this moment of spiritual repose and appreciation for the beauty of life, handed down in Japan from generation to generation, you will no doubt see why.

Plumb the depths of Japanese culture through tea ceremony and traditional confections