Morihachi Main Store

This guide to Morihachi Main Store in Kanazawa opens behind the sweets counter, where a tunnel of carved cherry-wood molds, faces, fish, chrysanthemums and Noh masks, stacks a thousand deep. It traces the shop back to 1625, when a castle fire pushed confectioner Morishitaya Hachizaemon to relocate, and follows his descendants to the third generation, who created the shop's signature rakugan sweet, Choseiden, named by a visiting tea master. Each mold is cut from mountain cherry wood, chosen because it holds a crisp edge through thousands of pressings.