In 2011, our company opened Roxy Music School in the Sanjo–Kawaramachi area of Kyoto. In recent years, we have welcomed an increasing number of international students. Many of them expressed a desire not only to play Japanese music, but also to learn about Japanese culture more broadly.
With this in mind, in the summer of 2018 we opened Sakura Japanese Cultural Experience in the same building, offering visitors an opportunity to explore traditional Japanese arts and culture.
You may already know that the cherry blossom, sakura, is Japan’s national flower. However, even many Japanese people do not know how the most famous cherry tree variety came to exist, or who created it.
The name Sakura Japanese Cultural Experience is inspired by Somei Yoshino, the iconic cherry blossom variety associated with my ancestor Ito Ihei, a renowned horticulturist and garden master who served the Tokugawa shogunate during the Edo period.
The name Kangetsu Ninenzaka comes from my great-grandfather Awashima Kangetsu, a Meiji-era Japanese writer, painter, and collector of antiques.
If you are interested, we invite you to read more about the history of the cherry blossoms and the remarkable individuals in our family lineage on the following pages of this website:
History of the Ito Family
History of the Awashima Family
History of the Ito and Shibusawa Families
At Sakura Japanese Cultural Experience (opened in 2018) and Kangetsu Ninenzaka (opened in 2024), visitors can enjoy a wide range of traditional Japanese cultural activities. These include decorative sushi roll classes—where guests can create, admire, and taste their creations—as well as ikebana flower arrangement, tea ceremony, calligraphy, and Japanese musical instruments.
For visitors traveling in Kyoto, moving around the city while sightseeing can require significant time and effort. Our two cultural experience venues are conveniently located near two of Kyoto’s most famous World Heritage sites: Nijo Castle (near the Sakura Experience Nijo location) and Kiyomizu Temple (near Kangetsu Ninenzaka). This makes it easy to stop by during sightseeing or shopping.
We continuously strive to improve our programs so that we can help make your visit to Kyoto a truly memorable experience.
We warmly invite you to visit our studios.
My wife,Aya Ito and Our staff look forward to welcoming you with sincere Japanese hospitality.
Roxy Co., Ltd.
Manabu Ito
President