This bakery, which doesn't even have a signboard, sells only thirty types of bread a day, but has exploded into Tokyo with its homegrown yeast!

type

status

date

slug

summary

🤗 01 From the prefecture to Tokyo, the mastermind wants to go further afield

SHIKATARAMUKANA has undergone three name changes, each of which was a twist of fate for the store.

Its predecessor was a bakery called “3ft” located in a building at the south west corner of a large intersection about 15 minutes by bus from Wakayama Station.

The style of the bakery was strange, not like a bakery but like an empty showroom (or not so luxurious), with the word “3ft” written on the outside wall of the building. You can see the inside of the store through the glass, which is decorated with seasonal items and tree branches. After a few steps down a spiral staircase, you come to a narrow atrium. Breads are casually arranged on flat tables, where Takashi Nakamura, the manager, bakes them while they are being made, and although it looks minimalist, there is an inexplicable sense of relaxation and artistry.

Before “3ft,” the bakery owned by Takashi Nakamura was completely unnamed.

Takashi Nakamura talks about the origin of the name “3ft”, “We started as an unnamed store on the third floor, and since we had already moved to the next store, we started with the next T in the letter S of Start to symbolize the move to the next store.”

Takashi Nakamura was born right here in Wakayama Prefecture. When he was in high school, he read a manga called “Yakitate! Japan” in high school and became interested in bread, so he decided to make his own bread. After graduating from a baking school in Osaka, he trained at a bakery for three years. Upon returning to his hometown and attending local events, his bread slowly became popular. Then, in April 2016, he opened “Nameless Bakery” in Wakayama City. The absence of a signboard and the display of bread like a modern work of art made his bakery a hot topic on the internet.

Then, as the heat gradually increased, on November 3, 2017, the “nameless bakery” moved to a new location and opened. It was time to come up with a name, and we couldn't just say “Nameless Bakery” all the time, could we? So the manager of the new bakery named it “3ft”, and of course, the style is the same as that of the nameless bakery.

Just... It's okay.

Then, as the popularity of the bread continued to grow, the manager wanted to open a store in a busier downtown area. So in 2020, “3ft” moved from the manager's hometown of Wako Prefecture to Tokyo's Kiyosumi Shirakawa subway station neighborhood and changed its name to “Nakamura Foods”. Takashi Nakamura said, “Because I wanted to see how popular my bread would be in Tokyo. Let's see if I can make it, I want more people to try it. I really didn't think too much about the matter of giving up my hometown to leave a familiar place.”

Nakamura Grocery Store after moving to Tokyo

Then, wanting to expand the store, Takashi Nakamura looked at the newly constructed building in the alley of Kagurazaka, Tokyo, and immediately moved there on July 20, 2023, after the completion of the building, which is the small store we see now. The new store is twice the size of the original, with twice the kitchen and sales space, a much nicer environment, and upgraded equipment that allows the store to bake twice as much bread as the original. But despite this, demand still outstrips supply. The owner changed the name of the new store from “Nakamura Foods” to the full name “Shikataramukana”.

The manager of the store can't say that he has planned everything, but he has done whatever he wanted. However, even the journey of relocating the shop with many twists and turns did not affect the popularity of SHIKATARAMUKANA, but rather, it is getting higher and higher. His mind is infinitely free and flexible, and it is probably this carefree attitude that has made it easy for him to expand his bakery horizons.

The fact that this bakery has been on fire for so long is certainly not only the unique display style of its store abstract, but also the products. The combination of homemade flavored yeast and the use of a variety of Japanese specialty wheat flours to produce unique flavors is what has always impressed customers at this small store.

🤗 02 Creative breads with homemade yeast

Harness the power of natural yeast to destroy gluten

Most of SHIKATARAMUKANA's breads have a high water content and a moist texture that melts in your mouth. The secret of Takashi Nakamura's bread making is to use natural yeast to acidify the dough and dissolve the gluten, giving it this texture.

“I use a combination of wheat grown in the fertile climate of Japan and a variety of yeasts to make the bread. The basic ingredients of the dough are domestic wheat, homemade yeast, salt and water. We use a mix of flours from Hokkaido, Saitama and Shiga prefectures. In addition to raisins, yogurt and citric acid, which do not produce a sour taste, we use yeast made from raw currants sold at a nearby miso store.” Takashi Nakamura said.

SHIKATARAMUKANA's style is to use a combination of five types of homemade yeast in each loaf: raisin yeast, sake yeast, sourdough yeast, levain yeast and biga yeast.

After arriving in Tokyo, our specialty bread was called “Everyone's Bread”. The idea was to create a unique bread without borders, not bound by the so-called French bread or German bread genres. The dough is made with a combination of carefully selected homemade yeast and a variety of domestic wheats, and is carefully kneaded and fermented for a long time to make it smooth and produce a chewy texture.

At first glance, it looks like hard yeast bread, but the moment you touch it, that image is turned upside down. The crust is thin and the inside is as soft as bread. Because it contains a lot of moisture, you'll be surprised at how chewy it is, which makes it rare in flavor when eaten straight. Nakamura recommends eating it slightly grilled, then sprinkled with butter and honey. By adding grill marks, the outside becomes crispy and flavorful while the inside becomes slightly heavier and chewy. You can feel the flavor of the simple and carefully selected ingredients consisting only of wheat, salt and yeast.

Another of their signature products, “Tawawa”, which has been sold since the 3ft era, contains orange peel, raisins, figs and walnuts, which make up about 50% of the dough. The combination of ingredients is exquisite, with the sweetness of raisins and figs, the bitterness of orange peel, and the aroma and flavor of walnuts blending together. From the appearance of the loaded ingredients one would think that the ingredients are overly flavored, but this is not the case. The dough had a strong flour flavor that was balanced just right. You can see how well the dough melts.

Symbolic dessert bread “Strawberry”, the slight sweetness of the dough, the tartness of green raisins and muscat grapes, and the rich sweetness of large chunks of pineapple are pleasantly blended together. The pink one is colored with French strawberry juice concentrate. Bread ingredients may vary seasonally.

Another chocolate bread with chocolate, peanuts, cranberries, red grapes and many other dried fruits to create a very luxurious texture flavor. It looks and thinks it's tough, but it's actually a bite full of filling.

“Juicy” is made with a high water content and about 10% olive oil, making it chewy without dissolving the gluten. Enjoy the pure flavor of flour and the aroma of olive oil, perfect for sandwiches.

There is also a bread called “Okaku” (whole 810 yen, half 405 yen). By using a small amount of yeast, 20 hours of fermentation time, and a lot of water, the bread has a lot of honeycomb-like bubbles. When baked, the bitter and sweet flavors of the puff pastry mingle in the mouth, and the dough is chewy and elastic. The butter and jam mix well and melt into bubbles on the hot surface.

If it weren't for the natural yeast, there wouldn't be bubbles like this,” says Takashi Nakamura. These yeasts are slowly cultivated for 20 hours a day. It is mainly left in one place to ferment slowly and naturally, but of course if it ferments too much it is corrected by changing the temperature of the dough and the kneading technique.

“Chilled Tomato”, which includes semi-dried tomatoes, papaya, lemon, cranberries, and herbs, can be tasted with the dough and the sweetness of the fruit, and the tomatoes bring them together.

Sencha Tangerine Yeast Toast is made by fermenting Kyoto fried sencha, which has a unique smoky flavor, with tangerines to make a leaven, and using the fried sencha tangerine yeast to make a square of toast with whole wheat flour and Danayan red beans. It is instantly reminiscent of a warm fireplace in late fall.

This product contains matcha, pineapple, lemon and marigold.

Wormwood bread with strawberry pulp, fava beans, walnuts, etc.

Pecan bread using 100% whole wheat flour

As the manager is often “out late and back early”, want to visit the store to buy a favorite bread really not only to fight hand speed but also to fight the luck, after 1:00 p.m. to buy bread without prior reservation, but it is likely that there are not too many choices can be purchased.

💡

Business Hours:

AM 10:30～13:00 Customers purchasing need to make an appointment.

Afternoon 13:00-15:00 You can buy without reservation.

(Closed if sold out)

Closed: Tuesdays and Wednesdays

(May be closed on special days such as holidays)

Address: Kif Annex, 101 13-1 Wakamiyacho, Shinjuku City, Tokyo

🤗 01 From the prefecture to Tokyo, the mastermind wants to go further afield

🤗 02 Creative breads with homemade yeast

japan guides