Yeasted sweet bun stuffed with anko (sweet red-bean paste). Yasubei Kimura's 1874 (Meiji 7) Tokyo invention — the first truly Japanese bread.
Yasubei Kimura, an ex-samurai, founded Kimuraya Sohonten in Ginza in 1869. In 1874 he and his son Eisaburo replaced Western (hops) leavening with sake-mash starter (sakadane) to suit Japanese palates and stuffed the bun with tsubuan red-bean paste. Emperor Meiji ate one on April 4, 1875 — date now marked as Anpan Day.
Kimuraya Sohonten still operates in Ginza at the original 1869 location, six generations on. April 4 is officially Anpan Day in Japan, commemorating the imperial tasting. Modern industrial anpan uses regular yeast — the sakadane original is still available only at Kimuraya.
Round bun, 8cm, glossy egg-washed top with a single salted-cherry-blossom or sesame in the dimpled center. Soft sakadane crumb with subtle sake-yeast funk, dense red-bean paste filling — koshian (smooth) or tsubuan (chunky). Always sweet, never savory.
Sakadane (rice-koji-based starter) instead of baker's yeast — slower fermentation 12+ hours, deeper flavor, softer chew that suited rice-eating Japanese palates. The salted-cherry-blossom pickle (sakurazuke) on top cuts the sweetness and is the Kimuraya house mark.
Variations
Kimuraya's original — sakadane-leavened, tsubuan filled, sakurazuke topped. Sakuran-pan (cherry-blossom anpan) is the spring-only version with salted sakura mixed into the paste. Uguisu-an uses green-pea paste instead of red bean. Shiroan (white bean) is rarer, sweeter.
On the Palate
Where Anpan sits in the Japanese flavor cloud
Ingredients
Serves 8
How it's made
6 steps · 48 min active + 2 hours waiting
- 130 min
Make milk-bread dough as for shokupan (with tangzhong), but smaller batch.
- 260 min
First rise 1 hr; divide into 50 g pieces.
- 315 min
Flatten each; place 30 g sweet red bean paste (anko) in center; pinch closed.
Watch outPinch the seam shut tight all the way around — any gap and the bean paste leaks and burns onto the tray during baking.
- 445 min
Place seam-down on baking sheet; second proof 45 min.
Watch outSet them seam-down so the weight holds the seal closed as they proof and puff.
- 53 min
Brush with egg wash; sprinkle black sesame on top.
- 615 min
Bake 180 °C 15 min until golden.
Watch outBake just to golden, about 15 min — the milk-bread crumb should stay soft and pillowy, so don't chase a dark crust.
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