A treasure trove of candy tins

By Takashi Sakinaga / Yomiuri Shimbun Staff Writer

10:56 JST, November 28, 2021

Sweets are even more appealing when they come in cute, colorful tins, which can also serve as stylish containers for other things after the candies disappear.

A charming array of such tins is on display at the Okashi no Mikata Tokyo Ko Boh!! showroom in Tokyo’s Ebisu district. The showroom has been run since 2018 by leading candy tin maker Osaka Seikan Co., an Osaka-based company that manufactures 30 different types.

President Yuichiro Shimizu began making fashionable all-purpose tins in 2014 at the request of a local confectionery that wanted to put its sweets into beautiful tins but couldn’t afford to make them.

Osaka Seikan’s most popular product is a long rectangular tin called a bijou box. Bijou means jewel in French, and the jewel designs embossed on the lid make it look like a treasure box of sweets.

Each design is printed repeatedly on a tin plate, which is then shaped with a metallic mold. More than 10 kinds of metal molds are used to make bijou tins.

“Good molds make good tins,” said Shimizu, an Osaka native who joined the company in 2003 and handled such tasks as the sale of its tins to sweets makers. He became the company’s third president in 2013.

The company recently created so-called rock tins, whose design resembles the spiky studs often seen on rock singers’ leather jackets.

“In our quest for clean shapes, the tins sometimes broke while we were making prototypes,” Shimizu said. The shiny product looks like real studs are embedded in it.

Osaka Seikan also produces Paris tins, which bear a map of Paris, and animal cake tins, which draw in tin collectors.

The company’s candy tins are sold to candy makers and not to individual consumers because Shimizu wants them to “find your favorite tins by visiting local sweets shops.”

Osaka Seikan’s website (https://www.okashinomikata.com/) has a list of confectioneries that use its tins.

“I hope consumers find delicious sweets in their pursuit of the candy tins,” Shimizu said.

Chocolate pencil case

Okashi no Mikata Tokyo Ko Boh!! sells confections in Osaka Seikan’s tins, with the kinds of sweets changing every month.

It also offers a pencil case in the shape of a chocolate bar for ¥1,000, an item that sells particularly well before Valentine’s Day.

A bonbonniere containing kompeito candies (¥702) is also available at confectionery stores that have business contracts with Osaka Seikan.

“I hope many people will buy them when they visit the shops,” Shimizu said.

Other items sold at the showroom include a set of masking tape and ribbon in a tin for ¥2,090. The showroom is open from noon to 7 p.m. on Wednesdays and Thursdays only.