Kuramaan was established in 1931 by a founder who apprenticed under the famous okaki maker, Masuda Eishodo, and the shop is now in its third generation. However, like many traditional companies in Japan, even the rice cracker industry is seeing a decline in the number of local producers. There were over 1,000 rice cracker stores in Japan when Kuramaan was founded and now there are only 500. In Kyoto, there were 50 okaki shops, but now there are only 23. Kuramaan has been able to persevere, even through hard times, and continues to focus on the founder’s philosophy of producing the best okaki and arare (rice crackers made with mochi, or glutinous rice) using high quality ingredients and traditional production methods.
