Kannonji city is located at the westernmost part of Kagawa prefecture.
In this town, there is a sweet that you can only get your hands on here.

It is the “Meika Kannonji” (Kannonji’s famous sweet), sold at Hakueido.
Also known as “Kannonji manju”, it is loved by locals who shorten its name to “kanman”.
The shop is currently managed by the 4th generation owner, Mr. Shirakawa.

The outer walls of the store are made of clay, and on the roof you see traditional roof tiles.
You can sense that the store’s history is appreciated.

There are plenty of people who come visit Kagawa during the New Year’s celebrations or the Bon Festival and buy “kanman” as souvenirs before they return to other prefectures.
However, what they say often is things like, “You can’t buy them at Takamatsu station”, and, “There are only a few places that sell them.”
What is the reason behind this?
Me: Where are Kannonji manju sold?
Owner: At the moment, they are only sold at Kannonji city’s Yanagi-cho main shop located in Kannonji-cho, the Sakae store located in Sakaemachi, at JR Kannonji station and at the Takamatsu road Toyohama service area.
Me: So you have many other shops, too.  But it seems like they’re located only within Kannonji city. Do you sell the products in any other regions?
Owner: As “kanman” don’t stay fresh for long, in order to maintain quality, I wish to sell the products within an area that I can keep an eye on. It’s a sweet that makes the people of Kannonji city happy. I would like to keep it like this from here on, as well.
To imagine that behind the inconvenience was the reason for the sweets’ popularity…
Apparently, there are many requests for selling them at Takamatsu station and Takamatsu airport, as well, but even so the shop keeps its policy of avoiding wholesale outside Kannonji, and as they don’t plan to sell the products online, they don’t apparently have a homepage, either.