Fukuyoshi Cafe Asahibashi Main Store 0166-85-6014
Fukuyoshi Cafe is a cafe space created by renovating the historic building "Former Kitajima Flour Mill" (built around 1925).
Our store is located in the Tokiwa area, a cultural district of Asahikawa City where Asahibashi Bridge, Tokiwa Park, the library, and the public hall are all located.
This building is a rare example of a structure that combines stacked soft stone for the side walls with a wooden facade, and it is a historical building that symbolizes the Kamikawa Hyakumangoku (one million koku) domain nestled in the Daisetsuzan Mountains during the pioneering era of Hokkaido. Having served as a flour mill, warehouse, tatami mat shop, sporting goods store, and Japanese confectionery shop, it holds many memories for the citizens of Asahikawa.
The shop is filled with "good things" from Japan and Asahikawa, such as Asahikawa furniture and Isamu Noguchi's AKARI chairs. Tokiwa-yaki, which is baked one by one using molds made by the now-defunct Usui cast iron company, is modeled after the Hokkaido heritage site "Asahibashi Bridge" and is loved by the citizens as a representative local snack of Asahikawa.
Furthermore, as the building is visited by many tourists as well as local residents, it houses "Asahikawa Tokiwa Information," a local tourist information center. Free Wi-Fi is available, and tourist facility brochures and local information magazines can be viewed.
Asahibashi Bridge and Tokiwa-yaki
Alongside our Fukuyoshi Latte, our signature "Tokiwa-yaki" is a local treat resembling a croissant taiyaki, inspired by the nearby Hokkaido Heritage site, " Asahibashi Bridge ." Each one is carefully baked using a specially made Danish pastry dough infused with butter, filled with Shumari's signature red bean paste, cream, chocolate chips, ham and mayonnaise, or seasonal fillings.
Asahibashi Bridge spans the Ishikari River in Asahikawa, the central city of northern Hokkaido. Its history began in 1892 with the construction of a simple earthen bridge at its current location. In 1932, a steel arch bridge was completed using the latest technology of the time. It is a representative historical landmark symbolizing Asahikawa, a city built on a river.
The Birth of Fukuyoshi Latte
Fukuyoshi Cafe was born in 2013 as a collaborative project between Yuji Fukui (center in the photo), the third-generation owner of the long-established Fukui Seianjo (founded in 1948) in Asahikawa City, Hokkaido; Masahide Yoshikawa (right in the photo), the third-generation owner of the tea shop Yoshikawaen (founded in 1945); and Yusuke Ebikogawa (left in the photo), editor of the local information magazine Liner .
The idea originated from a sense of crisis felt by both long-established businesses: red bean paste was being overshadowed by chocolate, and tea by bottled tea, and they felt that if they didn't try something new, the traditional Japanese sweets culture would be lost.
In this situation, the two third-generation owners and an editor who knows the region well came together as a trio, leveraging their respective strengths to create "Fukuyoshi Latte," a charming drink that embodies the careful and refined manners characteristic of Japanese culture, using carefully selected Japanese ingredients such as Shumari red beans from Biei and Uji matcha.
