Navona Day
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What Is Navona Day?
December 18th is "Navona Day," established by Kameya Mannendo Co., Ltd., founded in 1938 in Jiyugaoka, Tokyo, and now headquartered in Yokohama, Kanagawa Prefecture. The date is the company's founding day, December 18, 1938. It was certified and registered by the Japan Anniversary Association in 2013, the 50th anniversary of its signature sweet, Navona.
The Sweet Called "the Home Run King of Confectionery"
Navona went on sale in 1963. It became widely known through a television commercial featuring the former Yomiuri Giants star Sadaharu Oh, with the line "Navona is the home run king of confectionery," and has sold steadily ever since.
- Established by: Kameya Mannendo Co., Ltd. (founded in Jiyugaoka, Tokyo; headquarters in Tsuzuki Ward, Yokohama)
- Origin of the date: the company's founding on December 18, 1938
- Certification: registered by the Japan Anniversary Association in 2013, Navona's 50th year
- Launch: Navona went on sale in 1963
- The name: it was first sold as "Napoli," after the city the founder loved on a trip to Europe, but that name was already trademarked by another confectioner, so it was renamed "Navona" after Piazza Navona in Rome
A Western Sweet in Dorayaki Form, from a Wagashi Shop
Kameya Mannendo began as a maker of traditional Japanese sweets. Navona combines the sensibility of wagashi with the appeal of Western confectionery, sandwiching cream between soft, sponge-cake rounds; it was once advertised as a "Western-style dorayaki." Belonging fully to neither tradition is precisely what defines it.
Tips for Marking This Day
- Pick out a box of sweets to bring on your year-end rounds
- Look up the launch year of a sweet that has sold for decades
- Seek out confections that sit between Japanese and Western traditions
- See which other companies turn their founding date into an anniversary
Turning a Founding Date into an Anniversary
December 18th is the day Kameya Mannendo began, and a yearly occasion to recall that history. As you think about year-end gifts, a sweet with a long run behind it is not a bad choice.