Veteran sembei shop of over 200 years that boasts one of the longest histories in Ginza.<\/h4>\n\n\n- Takashima<\/dt>\n
- I was amazed to hear that your shop opened in the first year of the Bunka era! It has a history of over 200 years.<\/dd>\n
- Matsuzaki<\/dt>\n
- That\u2019s right. It opened in 1804. It first started in the Mikawa Province in the Kansai area and then a shop was opened in Shiba in Tokyo. It remained there for three generations before moving to Ginza in 1865.<\/dd>\n
- Takashima<\/dt>\n
- So, it also has a particularly long history among veteran shops in Ginza.<\/dd>\n
- Matsuzaki<\/dt>\n
- Yes, from the Edo period, so it is quite old. I am the seventh president, and my son will be the eighth.<\/dd>\n
- Takashima<\/dt>\n
- Was it always a sembei (cracker) shop?<\/dd>\n
- Matsuzaki<\/dt>\n
- Yes. We now also have a sweets parlor and a gallery, but we have always had sembei. Our sembei is actually kawara-sembei (tile shaped crackers), because our roots are in Kansai. They\u2019re very different from the Kanto style sembei that is hard and soy sauce flavored.<\/dd>\n
- Takashima<\/dt>\n
- Really?? I did not know there was a difference between Kanto and Kansai sembei. I was looking at the products in the storefront. They have lots of cute pictures on them and are fun to look at.<\/dd>\n
- Matsuzaki<\/dt>\n
- Thank you. We make \u201cshamido\u201d crackers that are our original brand of kawara-sembei. These pictures are drawn on with syrup. The fourth president of the shop started this because he said he wanted to add a seasonal touch.<\/dd>\n
- Takashima<\/dt>\n
- What is in them?<\/dd>\n
- Matsuzaki<\/dt>\n
- Just flour, sugar and eggs. They are then poured into a mold. A characteristic of our shop is that we try to simulate baking by hand as closely as possible and bake them very carefully. They have no butter in them, so the flavor is very simple.<\/dd>\n
- Takashima<\/dt>\n
- Kawara-sembei with a simple and wonderful sweet flavor \u2014 sounds wonderful. Do you sell other products than sembei?<\/dd>\n
- Matsuzaki<\/dt>\n
- We also sell some Japanese-style sweets. Today I have brought out for you a traditional Yamagata sweet that we sell from the end of the year until the beginning of January. These are sugar-preserved eggplant sweets, so people either love them or hate them. It\u2019s a rare sweet, so please give it a try.<\/dd>\n
- Takashima<\/dt>\n
- Oh, thank you! This is the first time for me to try an eggplant sweet.<\/dd>\n
- Matsuzaki<\/dt>\n
- As the saying goes, \u2018\u2018First, Mt. Fuji; second, hawks; third, eggplants,\u201d so eggplant sweets are favored around New Years as a bringer of good luck.<\/dd>\n
- Takashima<\/dt>\n
- (Takes a bite) Delicious! Preserving it in sugar makes it taste like a fruit. I love it. Thank you for such a special treat.<\/dd>\n<\/dl>\n<\/div>\n\n\n
![](\"\/wp-content\/uploads\/Connect_28_01.jpg\")
\n<\/div>\n\n![](\"\/wp-content\/uploads\/Connect_28_02.jpg\")
<\/p>\noriginal kawara-sembei: Shamido<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
\n\n\n![](\"\/wp-content\/uploads\/Connect_28_03.jpg\")
\n<\/div>\n\n![](\"\/wp-content\/uploads\/Connect_28_04.jpg\")
<\/p>\nChisako Takashima eating \u201cYume,\u201d a sugar-preserved eggplant sweet that is a limited-time product<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
\nI was born and raised in Ginza. I remember playing catch on Namiki-dori when I was young.<\/h4>\n\n\n- Takashima<\/dt>\n
- Were you born in Ginza?<\/dd>\n
- Matsuzaki<\/dt>\n
- Yes, I was born in Ginza. My mother, son and daughter were also born in Ginza.<\/dd>\n
- Takashima<\/dt>\n
- That\u2019s so cool! So you have been watching it change and grow since long ago.<\/dd>\n
- Matsuzaki<\/dt>\n
- Yes. I lived in Ginza until my 30\u2019s, so I have watched it change over the years. When my mother was a little girl, the famous Daikokuya bag shop was still a dry food grocer\u2019s. If there wasn\u2019t anything to go with rice for dinner, my grandfather would send her grocery shopping there and give her some extra money to buy herself a treat. That was the atmosphere of downtown Tokyo at the time. The area around Namiki-dori at 4-Chome was not so bustling, so we played catch there the first three days of the new year.<\/dd>\n
- Takashima<\/dt>\n
- Wow! That is hard to believe now!<\/dd>\n
- Matsuzaki<\/dt>\n
- Until after I turned thirty, the Yomiuri Shimbun newspaper building was where Printemps is now, and the Asahi Shimbun newspaper building was where the Marion is now. This area was filled not with boutiques and restaurants, but with office buildings, mahjong halls, red paper lantern diners and cafes, so it was relatively quiet on weekends.<\/dd>\n
- Takashima<\/dt>\n
- Now it seems completely like an area that never sleeps. I give a concert once every three months at Oji Hall and hold a closing party afterwards in Ginza. It doesn\u2019t seem like a recession at all \u2014 in fact it\u2019s hard to even find a parking spot. I always get the sense that Ginza is a glamorous, thriving district.<\/dd>\n
- Matsuzaki<\/dt>\n
- Yes it is. Even now, it becomes relatively quiet from around 2 in the morning, but it has changes dramatically since the olden days. That said, I think it is its acceptance of this change that gives Ginza its charm.<\/dd>\n<\/dl>\n<\/div>\n\n
![](\"\/wp-content\/uploads\/Connect_28_05.jpg\")
\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/p>\n
\nWe hold events on the second floor of the sembei shop. I want to try some new things.<\/h4>\n\n- Takashima<\/dt>\n
- I understand that you also hold events in the tea room on the second floor of this building (where the interview is taking place).<\/dd>\n
- Matsuzaki<\/dt>\n
- Yes, my son hosts all sorts of events once or twice a month after the shop has closed. My son loves music, so he holds a variety of music events, like rock, bossa nova, and shamisen. So far, we have only offered Japanese sweets and tea, because I don\u2019t drink, but some guests said they wanted to enjoy some drinks with the music, so we are thinking of offering champagne and other drinks at future events.<\/dd>\n
- Takashima<\/dt>\n
- I don\u2019t drink at all either, so I know how you feel (laughs). You also have a gallery in this building?<\/dd>\n
- Matsuzaki<\/dt>\n
- We rent out the space. Many people come to Ginza just for the galleries, so they seem to enjoy it. We are often told that the space is too large for personal exhibits, but it is favored by calligraphy masters that often use it.<\/dd>\n
- Takashima<\/dt>\n
- All sorts of people come to Ginza.<\/dd>\n
- Matsuzaki<\/dt>\n
- This is true. It is also often used by photographers. Yuji Nishi, the creator of the manga comic \u201cAn Doughnuts,\u201d was a photography enthusiast and often came to take pictures. After he passed away in 2013, we held a retrospective exhibition of his works. The Takarazuka Revue Company actresses once held a fan club meeting in the second floor tearoom. We offer a custom service where you can put a picture of your choice on Shamido crackers, so they ordered Shamido with the names of the actresses to hand out to fan club members.<\/dd>\n
- Takashima<\/dt>\n
- Original Shamido, what a great idea! They\u2019re the perfect size for giving out to people. I want to have some made too! I hope I can order them someday when I go on tour.<\/dd>\n
- Matsuzaki<\/dt>\n
- I look forward to your order.<\/dd>\n<\/dl>\n<\/div>\n\n\n
![](\"\/wp-content\/uploads\/Connect_28_06.jpg\")
<\/p>\nSecond floor tea room where the events are held regularly<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
\nI want to develop this area with a concept that is oriented on the people living here.<\/h4>\n\n\n- Takashima<\/dt>\n
- Please tell me about the spirit passed down through the generations that preserves shops with a long history.<\/dd>\n
- Matsuzaki<\/dt>\n
- Oh my shop is just a sembei shop, so I don\u2019t really have any grand plans (laughs). My grandmother used to tell me very strictly to put my heart and soul into every single sembei I bake. This is probably a relic of the olden days when they were made by hand, but I think it represents valuing each and every customer, for example when assisting them and in the packaging of the product.<\/dd>\n
- Takashima<\/dt>\n
- Your grandmother taught you many things.<\/dd>\n
- Matsuzaki<\/dt>\n
- Yes, she often told me to value things. Eat everything on my plate, without leaving a single grain of rice. Now I keenly feel the importance of such basic concepts. I hope that spirit is passed down the generations.<\/dd>\n
- Takashima<\/dt>\n
- That\u2019s wonderful. Lastly, can you tell me your thoughts on Ginza?<\/dd>\n
- Matsuzaki<\/dt>\n
- The Olympics are coming up, the Tsukiji market is going to be moved, and new apartment buildings are being built in the bay area, so another new wave is flowing through Ginza. The population here was shrinking at one point, but now the number of residents in neighboring areas is growing. Ginza used to be visited mostly by people from outside the district, but now I hope it will be enjoyed even more as a safe and secure place visited by those to whom it is like home.<\/dd>\n<\/dl>\n<\/div>\n\n
![](\"\/wp-content\/uploads\/Connect_28_07.jpg\")
\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n\nThe next guest will be\u2026<\/h4>\n\n- Takashima<\/dt>\n
- Could you tell us about the next guest?<\/dd>\n
- Matsuzaki<\/dt>\n
- It\u2019s Hiroshi Hara, the president of Ginza Vogue that makes wonderful hats. Mr. Hara himself is also a hatmaker, so I am sure he will tell you some very interesting stories about hats.<\/dd>\n<\/dl>\n<\/div>\n\n
![](\"\/wp-content\/uploads\/Connect_28_08.jpg\")
<\/p>\n\nChisako Takashima<\/h4>\n
Violinist. Started playing the violin at age 6. After playing abroad, she moved her home base to Japan, and gives concerts all over the country. Although her current focus is on performing music, she also appears on TV and radio programs. Thanks to her much-loved personality, she is appearing in more and more venues.<\/p>\n
- \n
- Takashima<\/dt>\n
- I was amazed to hear that your shop opened in the first year of the Bunka era! It has a history of over 200 years.<\/dd>\n
- Matsuzaki<\/dt>\n
- That\u2019s right. It opened in 1804. It first started in the Mikawa Province in the Kansai area and then a shop was opened in Shiba in Tokyo. It remained there for three generations before moving to Ginza in 1865.<\/dd>\n
- Takashima<\/dt>\n
- So, it also has a particularly long history among veteran shops in Ginza.<\/dd>\n
- Matsuzaki<\/dt>\n
- Yes, from the Edo period, so it is quite old. I am the seventh president, and my son will be the eighth.<\/dd>\n
- Takashima<\/dt>\n
- Was it always a sembei (cracker) shop?<\/dd>\n
- Matsuzaki<\/dt>\n
- Yes. We now also have a sweets parlor and a gallery, but we have always had sembei. Our sembei is actually kawara-sembei (tile shaped crackers), because our roots are in Kansai. They\u2019re very different from the Kanto style sembei that is hard and soy sauce flavored.<\/dd>\n
- Takashima<\/dt>\n
- Really?? I did not know there was a difference between Kanto and Kansai sembei. I was looking at the products in the storefront. They have lots of cute pictures on them and are fun to look at.<\/dd>\n
- Matsuzaki<\/dt>\n
- Thank you. We make \u201cshamido\u201d crackers that are our original brand of kawara-sembei. These pictures are drawn on with syrup. The fourth president of the shop started this because he said he wanted to add a seasonal touch.<\/dd>\n
- Takashima<\/dt>\n
- What is in them?<\/dd>\n
- Matsuzaki<\/dt>\n
- Just flour, sugar and eggs. They are then poured into a mold. A characteristic of our shop is that we try to simulate baking by hand as closely as possible and bake them very carefully. They have no butter in them, so the flavor is very simple.<\/dd>\n
- Takashima<\/dt>\n
- Kawara-sembei with a simple and wonderful sweet flavor \u2014 sounds wonderful. Do you sell other products than sembei?<\/dd>\n
- Matsuzaki<\/dt>\n
- We also sell some Japanese-style sweets. Today I have brought out for you a traditional Yamagata sweet that we sell from the end of the year until the beginning of January. These are sugar-preserved eggplant sweets, so people either love them or hate them. It\u2019s a rare sweet, so please give it a try.<\/dd>\n
- Takashima<\/dt>\n
- Oh, thank you! This is the first time for me to try an eggplant sweet.<\/dd>\n
- Matsuzaki<\/dt>\n
- As the saying goes, \u2018\u2018First, Mt. Fuji; second, hawks; third, eggplants,\u201d so eggplant sweets are favored around New Years as a bringer of good luck.<\/dd>\n
- Takashima<\/dt>\n
- (Takes a bite) Delicious! Preserving it in sugar makes it taste like a fruit. I love it. Thank you for such a special treat.<\/dd>\n<\/dl>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n<\/div>\n\n<\/p>\n
original kawara-sembei: Shamido<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
\n\n\n\n<\/div>\n\n<\/p>\nChisako Takashima eating \u201cYume,\u201d a sugar-preserved eggplant sweet that is a limited-time product<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
\nI was born and raised in Ginza. I remember playing catch on Namiki-dori when I was young.<\/h4>\n
\n- \n
- Takashima<\/dt>\n
- Were you born in Ginza?<\/dd>\n
- Matsuzaki<\/dt>\n
- Yes, I was born in Ginza. My mother, son and daughter were also born in Ginza.<\/dd>\n
- Takashima<\/dt>\n
- That\u2019s so cool! So you have been watching it change and grow since long ago.<\/dd>\n
- Matsuzaki<\/dt>\n
- Yes. I lived in Ginza until my 30\u2019s, so I have watched it change over the years. When my mother was a little girl, the famous Daikokuya bag shop was still a dry food grocer\u2019s. If there wasn\u2019t anything to go with rice for dinner, my grandfather would send her grocery shopping there and give her some extra money to buy herself a treat. That was the atmosphere of downtown Tokyo at the time. The area around Namiki-dori at 4-Chome was not so bustling, so we played catch there the first three days of the new year.<\/dd>\n
- Takashima<\/dt>\n
- Wow! That is hard to believe now!<\/dd>\n
- Matsuzaki<\/dt>\n
- Until after I turned thirty, the Yomiuri Shimbun newspaper building was where Printemps is now, and the Asahi Shimbun newspaper building was where the Marion is now. This area was filled not with boutiques and restaurants, but with office buildings, mahjong halls, red paper lantern diners and cafes, so it was relatively quiet on weekends.<\/dd>\n
- Takashima<\/dt>\n
- Now it seems completely like an area that never sleeps. I give a concert once every three months at Oji Hall and hold a closing party afterwards in Ginza. It doesn\u2019t seem like a recession at all \u2014 in fact it\u2019s hard to even find a parking spot. I always get the sense that Ginza is a glamorous, thriving district.<\/dd>\n
- Matsuzaki<\/dt>\n
- Yes it is. Even now, it becomes relatively quiet from around 2 in the morning, but it has changes dramatically since the olden days. That said, I think it is its acceptance of this change that gives Ginza its charm.<\/dd>\n<\/dl>\n<\/div>\n\n\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
<\/p>\n
\nWe hold events on the second floor of the sembei shop. I want to try some new things.<\/h4>\n
- \n
- Takashima<\/dt>\n
- I understand that you also hold events in the tea room on the second floor of this building (where the interview is taking place).<\/dd>\n
- Matsuzaki<\/dt>\n
- Yes, my son hosts all sorts of events once or twice a month after the shop has closed. My son loves music, so he holds a variety of music events, like rock, bossa nova, and shamisen. So far, we have only offered Japanese sweets and tea, because I don\u2019t drink, but some guests said they wanted to enjoy some drinks with the music, so we are thinking of offering champagne and other drinks at future events.<\/dd>\n
- Takashima<\/dt>\n
- I don\u2019t drink at all either, so I know how you feel (laughs). You also have a gallery in this building?<\/dd>\n
- Matsuzaki<\/dt>\n
- We rent out the space. Many people come to Ginza just for the galleries, so they seem to enjoy it. We are often told that the space is too large for personal exhibits, but it is favored by calligraphy masters that often use it.<\/dd>\n
- Takashima<\/dt>\n
- All sorts of people come to Ginza.<\/dd>\n
- Matsuzaki<\/dt>\n
- This is true. It is also often used by photographers. Yuji Nishi, the creator of the manga comic \u201cAn Doughnuts,\u201d was a photography enthusiast and often came to take pictures. After he passed away in 2013, we held a retrospective exhibition of his works. The Takarazuka Revue Company actresses once held a fan club meeting in the second floor tearoom. We offer a custom service where you can put a picture of your choice on Shamido crackers, so they ordered Shamido with the names of the actresses to hand out to fan club members.<\/dd>\n
- Takashima<\/dt>\n
- Original Shamido, what a great idea! They\u2019re the perfect size for giving out to people. I want to have some made too! I hope I can order them someday when I go on tour.<\/dd>\n
- Matsuzaki<\/dt>\n
- I look forward to your order.<\/dd>\n<\/dl>\n<\/div>\n\n\n<\/p>\n
Second floor tea room where the events are held regularly<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
\nI want to develop this area with a concept that is oriented on the people living here.<\/h4>\n
\n- \n
- Takashima<\/dt>\n
- Please tell me about the spirit passed down through the generations that preserves shops with a long history.<\/dd>\n
- Matsuzaki<\/dt>\n
- Oh my shop is just a sembei shop, so I don\u2019t really have any grand plans (laughs). My grandmother used to tell me very strictly to put my heart and soul into every single sembei I bake. This is probably a relic of the olden days when they were made by hand, but I think it represents valuing each and every customer, for example when assisting them and in the packaging of the product.<\/dd>\n
- Takashima<\/dt>\n
- Your grandmother taught you many things.<\/dd>\n
- Matsuzaki<\/dt>\n
- Yes, she often told me to value things. Eat everything on my plate, without leaving a single grain of rice. Now I keenly feel the importance of such basic concepts. I hope that spirit is passed down the generations.<\/dd>\n
- Takashima<\/dt>\n
- That\u2019s wonderful. Lastly, can you tell me your thoughts on Ginza?<\/dd>\n
- Matsuzaki<\/dt>\n
- The Olympics are coming up, the Tsukiji market is going to be moved, and new apartment buildings are being built in the bay area, so another new wave is flowing through Ginza. The population here was shrinking at one point, but now the number of residents in neighboring areas is growing. Ginza used to be visited mostly by people from outside the district, but now I hope it will be enjoyed even more as a safe and secure place visited by those to whom it is like home.<\/dd>\n<\/dl>\n<\/div>\n\n\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n
The next guest will be\u2026<\/h4>\n
- \n
- Takashima<\/dt>\n
- Could you tell us about the next guest?<\/dd>\n
- Matsuzaki<\/dt>\n
- It\u2019s Hiroshi Hara, the president of Ginza Vogue that makes wonderful hats. Mr. Hara himself is also a hatmaker, so I am sure he will tell you some very interesting stories about hats.<\/dd>\n<\/dl>\n<\/div>\n\n<\/p>\n\n
Chisako Takashima<\/h4>\n
Violinist. Started playing the violin at age 6. After playing abroad, she moved her home base to Japan, and gives concerts all over the country. Although her current focus is on performing music, she also appears on TV and radio programs. Thanks to her much-loved personality, she is appearing in more and more venues.<\/p>\n