To the people of our community.
What we can do to be part of the everyday lives
of those who live in Fushimi-Momoyama.

Cafe & Sweets Parade Kyoto has its shop in the town of Fushimi-Momoyama in Kyoto, where we make and sell our sweets every day.

We choose to keep doing business in “Fushimi-Momoyama, where people live their daily lives,” not in “Kyoto as a tourist destination.”
For us, we feel this calls into question our very stance, even more than our “location.”
For us, “continuing to do business in Fushimi-Momoyama” is not merely about business.

The neighbors we see every day.
The regulars who stop by on their way home from work.
The people who think of us for special events and at the turn of the seasons.
Those who live, work, study and visit here—.

We want Parade’s sweets to quietly stay close to the people of this community, as a natural extension of their everyday lives.

In Fushimi-Momoyama, time flows a little differently from “tourist Kyoto,” which is bustling to the point of overtourism.

The morning commute, evening shopping, a detour on the way home from school, a weekend stroll.
As an extension of these ordinary days, we hope you might suddenly think, “I’ll pick up something sweet to take home today.”

That kind of “extension of everyday life” is what we want to cherish.

This is a somewhat long piece, but we would like to share a message from Parade with the residents and businesses of our community.

Making Sweets in This Town

Making sweets is not something that is completed inside the shop alone.
There are people who grow the ingredients, people who transport them, and people who select, handle and shape them.
And only when someone picks them up do they truly become “sweets.”

Over a long period of time, the land of Fushimi-Momoyama has built up layers of fermentation culture, beginning with sake brewing, a rich culture of water, the work of craftspeople, and the wisdom of daily life.
We have joined this layered context as a Western-style pastry shop.

*Click here for an article introducing the charms of Fushimi-Momoyama

That is exactly why we are always asking ourselves:

What ingredients do we use?
Who is involved, and how?
In what environment, and with what feelings, are our sweets made?
And are we able to pay respect to everything behind them?

We want to keep building up sweets that people recognize as “this shop’s sweets,” not only for their flavor and appearance but also for the way we conduct ourselves.

Relationships Where We Can See Local Ingredients and the Faces of Their Producers

Our sweet-making begins first with “choosing better ingredients.”
Wherever possible, we want to choose ingredients whose origins we know.
We want to build relationships with producers and businesses close enough that we can talk with them.

This is not in order to hold up the slogan of “local production for local consumption,” but because we believe it is the most natural way to handle ingredients with care.

Even the same eggs, wheat or fruit change in character depending on the environment, the time of harvest and how they are tended.
“What is the very best quality of this ingredient?”
“How should we handle it so that this quality comes through?”
To know this, listening to the voices of those who produce them is essential.

The information that ingredients convey is not just price or size.
How they are grown, seasonal fluctuations, the effects of the weather, and the flavor unique to that year that results from all of this.
Such “living changes” shape our decisions on formulation, cooking and baking, and finishing.
The flavor of our sweets is supported by the accumulation of careful work behind the ingredients.

As the ones receiving that baton, we always want to receive it with sincerity.

Carefully Continuing the “Basics”

Before elaborate decoration or flashy ideas, we want to value the foundation first.
The formulation of fresh cream, the choice of wheat flour and rice flour, the type of sugar, judging the bake, temperature control.
These are taken for granted in the world of sweets, but because our pâtissiers make every product by hand, one by one, we are very conscious of carefully keeping up these basics.

At Parade, we want first and foremost to value this principle of “never compromising on the basics.”
In the end, what determines flavor is “human handwork.”
A difference of just a few dozen seconds in mixing, changes in room temperature and humidity, changes in the moisture content of ingredients.
We believe that reading these subtle differences, adjusting by hand and building on them leads to “I want to eat this again.”

The feel of the hand, rather than efficiency.
A reliability people will remember again and again, rather than trends.

That is our stance.

Safety and Peace of Mind, to Be Part of Your Everyday Life

Snacks shared with family.
Baked goods handed to children.
A modest gift for someone.
Or time at night to “take care of yourself” after finishing work or housework.

We believe every one of these calls for “peace of mind.”
Carefully selecting ingredients, relying on additives as little as possible, and making the most of the strength of the ingredients themselves.
This is not simply because we want to proclaim “additive-free.”
It comes from our wish “to deliver deliciousness that places little burden on the body, even if eaten every day.”

Of course, this does not mean we are doing everything perfectly.
We still have a great deal to learn, and we continue through trial and error every day.

Even so, we keep making sweets while asking ourselves, day after day, “Are we satisfied with this ourselves?” and “Could we recommend this to the people close to us?”

Being Sustainable

What Cafe & Sweets Parade Kyoto aims for is not to ride passing trends or waves of consumption.
It is to continue in this town for a long time, without strain and with integrity.
That is what “sustainability” means to us.

We value the perspectives of the public good and mutual aid.
The public good means benefit for an unspecified, broad range of people.
Mutual aid means relationships that are built on people supporting one another.

Not engaging in unreasonable price competition.
Not treating ingredients, or the work of the people who handle them, lightly.
Not pushing excessive burdens onto anyone for the sake of short-term profit.

At first glance, these choices may look like a roundabout path.
That is because, to keep going for a long time, it is absolutely necessary to earn properly and grow our sales.

Yet we believe that it is precisely this accumulation that, in the end, builds trust and nurtures long-lasting relationships.

The economy, culture and the environment are not inherently separate; they are organically connected.
Through making sweets, the economy circulates, culture is passed on, and awareness of the environment grows.
If we can play a part in such a cycle here in Fushimi-Momoyama, nothing would make us happier.

*Click here for our efforts to reduce food loss

Contributing to the Better Development of Fushimi-Momoyama

We want Parade to be more than just “a place that sells sweets.”

A place where people who live in, work in and visit this town drop by for a while, conversations begin, and relationships slowly grow.
On fine days, we want to open the doors all the way so that you can relax on the terrace seating.
On cold days, we want you to be able to unwind with warm Japanese black tea or a medium-dark roast coffee that pairs well with baked goods.
We always hope we can become that kind of place for all of you.

They are sweets for everyday living.
They are sweets that add a little color to plain, ordinary days.
They are sweets for living tomorrow richly.

There is a phrase, “the beauty of use” (yō no bi), that was born from the Mingei (folk craft) movement advocated by Yanagi Sōetsu in the Taishō era.
It was a very Japanese aesthetic endeavor that sought joy in a beauty found not in special objects for appreciation but in the simple, sturdy handwork of anonymous craftspeople, a beauty that deepens the more an object is used, and in the beauty that dwells in everyday objects that blend into daily life.
Perhaps what we want to express through “Western” sweets is something like the distinctly Japanese beauty dwelling in “use” that Yanagi sought to elucidate.

Creating something together with local businesses.
Taking part in community events and seasonal milestones.
Giving new roles to things that are no longer used and to leftover ingredients.

Local production for local consumption, sustainability, upcycling, eliminating plastic from containers and packaging, reducing food loss—these are easy to put into words, but in reality each one involves more cost than you might think.

Even so, as a business that has put down roots in this place, we want to keep building up steadily, one step at a time, starting with what we can do.

If that accumulation ultimately deepens the appeal of Fushimi-Momoyama and helps enrich life here in better ways, nothing could make us happier.

*Click here for an introduction to the charms of Fushimi-Momoyama

We Welcome Collaborations with Our Local Community

Cafe & Sweets Parade Kyoto always welcomes partnerships and collaborations with local businesses, producers and makers, centered on Fushimi.

For example, we can do things like the following,
so if something ever brings us to mind, we would be glad to hear from you.

1) Product development that makes the most of ingredients

Things that are appealing but have limited outlets, such as local agricultural products, processed foods and traditional ingredients.
Non-standard products, surplus products and seasonal ingredients.
We may be able to help transform such ingredients into sweets and deliver them as something of value.

2) Initiatives tied to seasons, traditional events and local events

Local festivals, cultural events, and events held by schools and local governments. As a shop, there may be ways we can help, such as proposing sweets suited to the occasion or planning limited-edition items.

3) Initiatives that lead to upcycling and food loss reduction

By-products generated in the production process, ingredients that could not be used up, and syrups and fruit peels that tend to be left over.
“Giving a second role to things that would otherwise have been thrown away”
This way of thinking is also an area that pairs very well with making sweets.

4) Starting with mutual introductions, information exchange and small partnerships

It doesn’t have to be a big project.
“First, getting to know each other,” “Having a talk,” “Trying something together once”
We value the relationships that begin from there.

*Products born from partnerships with the local community

Rooted in the community, we work on developing products together with local producers and food processing companies. Through these activities, we hope to help solve challenges facing the region, such as revitalizing local industry, raising the food self-sufficiency rate and reducing food loss.
Please enjoy these carefully crafted specialties created together with the community.
We look forward to collaborating with you.

Let’s Start by Exchanging Information

“Could we do something like this together?”
“I wonder if they’d use our ingredients.”
“We’re thinking about this kind of project in the community, and…”

Small voices like these can sometimes become the seeds of future collaborations.
We want to be the ones who carefully nurture those seeds.

To begin with, simply exchanging information is perfectly fine.
We would be glad to build a relationship slowly, starting by learning about each other’s backgrounds and ideas.

*For inquiries, please contact us here.

We believe a pastry shop is a business that becomes more a part of its community the longer it continues.
Someone who visits for the first time comes back six months later.
They think of us with each season.
We become an established choice for gifts.
That kind of “accumulation of time” helps the shop grow and become part of the town’s landscape.

We want to be a sweets shop that brings all the color we can to someone’s special day,
and quietly stays by their side on an ordinary one.
That wish only becomes reality when we run alongside the lives of the people in our community.

Entrusting ourselves to the flow of time in the town of Fushimi-Momoyama, we at Cafe & Sweets Parade Kyoto want, as members of this town, to think together, struggle together and move forward together with the people of our community.