Six ingredients · fourteen snacks · one prefecture under Fuji.
Shizuoka grows roughly forty percent of all the tea in Japan, raises almost all of its wasabi, invented the eel-laced butter pie, and gilds its modern matcha chocolate with shade-grown leaves from its mountains. The prefecture stretches along the Pacific from Mt. Fuji's southern foot to the southern tip of the Izu Peninsula — a long ribbon of tea plateau, citrus coast, and hot-spring towns that has been quietly supplying Japan's snack shelves for centuries.
The prefectural capital and historic seat of Tokugawa Ieyasu's retirement (Sumpu Castle). Since the 17th century the city has been Japan's primary tea wholesaling hub — and home to the four-century-old Abekawa Mochi.
The Makinohara plateau — Japan's largest single tea plantation, where the deep-steamed (fukamushi) sencha was invented in the 1960s to extract more body from heavy-leaved local cultivars. Yaizu on the coast handles the export.
The western capital — home of Suzuki and Yamaha, the country's largest population of eel farms around Lake Hamana, and Shunkado, the confectioner that invented the Unagi Pie in 1961. Eel powder in a butter pie: the strangest national-tier sweet Japan has produced.
The town at the southwest foot of Mt. Fuji, home to the head Sengen shrine and to the Asagiri Highland — a windswept dairy plateau at 700m altitude. Asagiri milk, butter, and cheese end up in much of central Shizuoka's modern confectionery.
The historic spa town on Izu's east coast — Japan's original onsen weekend destination since the Showa era, recently re-emerging as a modern retro icon. The home of Atami Pudding, the bottled custard whose Showa-era label became one of the most recognised modern souvenirs in Japan.
The southern tip of the Izu Peninsula — and the harbour where Commodore Perry's Black Ships forced Japan to open in 1854. Today: warm-climate citrus orchards, golden-eyed snapper (kinmedai), and one of Japan's quieter coastlines.
Almost every Shizuoka sweet — heritage or modern, hand-made or national-brand — can be traced back to six ingredients grown along this Pacific ribbon. This is the raw material of the Suruga pantry.
The deep-steamed sencha — a Shizuoka invention from the 1960s. Steamed two to three times longer than ordinary tea, it produces a thicker, sweeter, more vivid green cup. It is the single most exported Japanese tea — and the base of almost every modern Shizuoka sweet.
Matcha is associated with Uji, but Shizuoka quietly produces its own — shade-grown carefully on mountain tea gardens for a balanced umami and gentle bitterness. Recently adopted nationally by Tirol-choco's "Tenku Matcha" series. A Shizuoka secret going mainstream.
The mountain village of Utogi is where wasabi cultivation in clear-water beds was first developed around 1600. Shizuoka still grows roughly half of all the wasabi consumed in Japan. Sharp, sweet, alive — and surprisingly at home in chocolate.
The southern slopes facing Suruga Bay produce some of Japan's most aromatic mandarin oranges — sweet, fragrant, brightly orange. Numazu and Mishima ship them fresh in winter; processed juice and jelly carry the flavour year-round.
The Asagiri Highland sits at 700 metres on Mt. Fuji's western shoulder — cool, windswept, well-drained pasture. The cream-rich milk it produces ends up in central Shizuoka's modern cheesecakes, butter cookies, and Atami's iconic bottled pudding.
Hamamatsu, on the shores of Lake Hamana, has farmed eel since the early 1900s. In 1961 the confectioner Shunkado decided to use eel powder in a butter pie — and the Unagi Pie became one of Japan's most exported regional sweets. The strangest confectionery ingredient on this list, by some distance.
The fourteen confections below form the canon of contemporary Shizuoka snacking — from a 17th-century kinako mochi to the national-brand regional editions that put eel and wasabi in chocolate. We've labelled them so the lineage is legible. From those six, these fourteen.
A flaky French-style palmier kneaded with eel powder, brushed with eel-and-garlic tare, and crystallised with sugar. Invented in 1961 as a "night snack" to be eaten as a family conversation starter. Now one of Japan's most exported regional sweets — and surely the world's only eel-flavoured cookie.
A collaboration with Tamaruya Honten, Shizuoka's storied wasabi merchant since 1875. Real hon-wasabi blended into white chocolate — sharp, faintly sweet, surprisingly delicate. Sold only in Shizuoka; one of Kit Kat Japan's most celebrated regional editions.
A bite-sized chocolate with a mochi centre, made with Shizuoka mountain-grown shade-cultivated matcha ("Tenku Matcha"). Released April 2026. Quiet evidence that Shizuoka's matcha — long overshadowed by Uji — is finding its way into national-brand confectionery.
Part of Glico's "Jimoto Pocky" regional series — uses real Shizuoka wasabi for a bright, mountain-stream sharpness. Sold across the Tokai region; a quieter cousin to the wasabi Kit Kat, more aromatic and less sweet.
Freshly pounded mochi dusted thickly in roasted kinako with a touch of sugar — a recipe served on the Tōkaidō highway to passing travellers (and once, to the retired shogun Ieyasu) for nearly four centuries. The oldest sweet on this list.
A deep-green yokan jelly made with concentrated fukamushi sencha — the flavour of brewed Shizuoka tea, suspended in azuki and agar. Often pressed into rectangular blocks the colour of moss.
A layered Baumkuchen folded with fukamushi sencha and Asagiri milk — the two pantry stars in one cake. Soft, deeply green, faintly bittersweet. The modern Shizuoka tea sweet par excellence.
A baked cheesecake made with fresh Asagiri Highland cream cheese — soft, lactic, and faintly grassy from the 700-metre pasture. The signature Mt. Fuji-foot dairy sweet.
A whole Kuno strawberry — grown on the famous "stone-wall" (ishigaki) terraces facing Suruga Bay — wrapped in white anko and soft mochi. Available only December through April. The most photogenic Shizuoka sweet of winter.
Roasted broad beans coated in a crackly wasabi sugar shell. Eaten by the handful with green tea or a chilled beer. A 50-year fixture of Shizuoka station kiosks.
A whole Suruga Bay mandarin wrapped in white anko and mochi — bright orange visible through translucent rice flour. Made year-round with cold-stored fruit; sweet, juicy, faintly floral.
A castella sponge folded with deep-steamed Makinohara sencha — vivid green, faintly grassy, gently sweet. A direct expression of the prefecture's signature tea in cake form.
A langue-de-chat butter cookie sandwiching white chocolate ganache flavoured with deeply roasted Shizuoka houjicha. Toasted, caramel, faintly bitter — the prefecture's quiet answer to the matcha cookie.
A bottled custard pudding sold in a Showa-era retro glass jar, with a striped paper label that became one of Japan's most-photographed modern souvenirs. Soft-set, eggy, with a smoked caramel sauce. The face of the Atami revival.
These fourteen are the canon of Shizuoka confectionery as we read it. The Shizuoka edition of the FUJIRI box is currently in curation and will draw from this list — exact contents announced closer to launch.
In the mountain village of Utogi, north of Sumpu (today's Shizuoka City), the first wasabi cultivation method using cold mountain stream water is developed. The technique spreads to Izu and beyond. Shizuoka still grows roughly half of all Japanese wasabi.
At the Abe River crossing on the Tōkaidō highway, a teahouse begins serving kinako-dusted mochi to passing travellers. By legend, it is renamed by Tokugawa Ieyasu himself. Ishimura-ya, said to descend from that teahouse, still sells the same recipe today.
Former samurai of the dissolved Tokugawa shogunate are settled on the Makinohara plateau and put to work planting tea. Within a generation it becomes Japan's largest single tea plantation — and the cradle of fukamushi sencha a century later.
Yamazaki Kōichi, the second-generation owner of Shunkado, releases a butter pie made with eel powder — sold as a "night snack" meant to spark family conversation. The Unagi Pie becomes one of Japan's most exported regional sweets and the defining symbol of Hamamatsu.
Tea makers in Makinohara and Yaizu experiment with steaming sencha leaves two to three times longer than tradition allowed. The result — a thicker, sweeter, vividly green cup — becomes Shizuoka's defining tea style and the base of almost every modern Shizuoka sweet.
Tirol-Choco releases a nama-mochi chocolate flavoured with Shizuoka mountain-grown shade-cultivated matcha — quiet evidence that Shizuoka's long-overshadowed matcha is finding its way into the national snack canon, alongside the Kit Kat Tamaruya Wasabi and Shizuoka Wasabi Pocky already in circulation.
FUJIRI Dispatches are short editorial briefs from across Japan — the maker visits, the regional histories, the recipes that don't quite fit on a snack package. Sent occasionally, never noisy.
Subscribers also get the next box launch — including Shizuoka, currently in curation for Q1 2027, with a winter window when mikan, wasabi, and Kuno strawberries reach their peak — before it goes public, with first-edition booklet access.
Both, actually. Kyoto (Uji) is the historical and ceremonial heart of matcha — that has not changed. But Shizuoka also produces significant quantities of carefully shade-grown matcha in its mountain tea gardens, and national brands like Tirol-choco have recently begun using it ("Tenku Matcha"). Shizuoka's identity, though, remains tied above all to sencha — particularly deep-steamed fukamushi sencha, of which it is by far Japan's largest producer.
The Kit Kat Tamaruya Wasabi — made in collaboration with the 1875-founded Tamaruya Honten wasabi merchant — is sold only in Shizuoka. Glico produces a Shizuoka Wasabi Pocky as part of its Jimoto Pocky regional series. And Tirol-choco's nationally released "Nama-mochi Tenku Matcha" uses Shizuoka mountain-grown shade matcha. All three feature in our Shizuoka canon.
Because Lake Hamana, on which Hamamatsu sits, has been Japan's largest unagi-farming area since the early 1900s. In 1961 the second-generation owner of Shunkado, Yamazaki Kōichi, thought a pie made with eel powder might become a memorable "night snack" for families. He was correct: the Unagi Pie is now one of Japan's most exported regional sweets, sold for over sixty years.
Shizuoka has two natural peaks. Spring (April–May) brings the new tea harvest — fukamushi sencha and Shizuoka matcha at their freshest. Winter (November–February) brings the strongest pantry: mikan, wasabi, and Kuno strawberries all reach peak at once. The FUJIRI Shizuoka box is timed for the winter window.
Q1 2027, estimated — timed for the winter peak when mikan, wasabi, and Kuno strawberries are all in season. Curation is underway and we'll write to everyone on the waitlist with a firm date around two months out. First-edition subscribers will receive an editorial booklet on the Makinohara tea plateau and the invention of the Unagi Pie.
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