Mugi no Ho: An Imabari Bakery Run as a Supported-Employment Workshop (Closed Sundays and Holidays)
These four came home in one paper bag from Mugi no Ho, a small bakery on the old national road in the eastern part of Imabari.
The name means “ear of wheat”, and it is a fair description of what the shop is aiming at: plain bread where you can taste the flour.
What makes it worth a paragraph in a travel guide, though, is who bakes it.
Mugi no Ho is run by a local social welfare foundation as a supported-employment workshop, and the people working there — baking, serving at the counter, going out with the delivery van — are adults with disabilities.
That also shapes when you can visit, because it keeps workshop hours: mornings and early afternoons, closed on Sundays and public holidays.
A bakery that is also a workshop
The foundation behind the shop runs it as what Japan calls a Type B continuous employment support office, which is a workplace for people who find ordinary employment difficult.
Three things are made and sold here: bread, baked sweets, and vegetables and fruit grown on the foundation’s own farm.
The foundation’s own description of the place is about the experience of making something with your hands and then hearing a customer say it tastes good, which is a reasonable thing to keep in mind when you walk in.
None of this is presented as a charity counter, and nothing about the shop asks you to buy for the cause.
It is a working bakery with a glass case of filled rolls and sweet buns, and the point is that the bread is good enough to buy on its own terms.
The author of this site, who runs an acupuncture clinic in Imabari, had been buying bread here for years before he ever wrote about it.
What we bought
The shop’s own recommendation, on the visit described in the original Japanese article, was a bun filled with yoghurt cream and blueberry.
Alongside it went a roll baked with cubes of cheese, a soft French roll split and filled with cream, and a melon pan, the round Japanese bun with a sweet cookie crust.
The melon pan is the one worth describing, because it shows what the bakery is doing.
The crust was crisp, the crumb underneath was neither too soft nor dry, and the sweetness stopped well short of where a melon pan usually goes.
Under the sugar there was a clear taste of wheat, which is the thing this shop seems to care about most.
The same was true of the cream-filled ones: sweet enough to register, not sweet enough to cover the bread.
The counter that day held mostly filled savoury rolls and sweet buns, with no sandwich loaf out on the shelf.
Local write-ups from later visits describe around fifty kinds on the counter, sandwich loaves included, along with an eat-in corner at the back where you can sit down with what you have just bought.
The word that comes up most often in those write-ups is soft and chewy, and the second most common one is inexpensive.
Small thing, but the bag the bread comes home in is a proper stiff paper one rather than a plastic bag, and it survives a bicycle basket better than you would expect.
The van that comes to you
Mugi no Ho also sells from a van, and this is still part of what the workshop does, with the workers going out on the round and handling the counter side of it themselves.
The way it works locally is that you tell them roughly when you would like them to come, and they will try to fit your place into the route.
If you are somewhere they do not normally pass, they will tell you the approximate time they can be there instead.
The clinic that publishes this site has had the van come round so that everyone at work could buy together, which is the usual way offices here use it.
For a visitor this is not something you can book, but it explains a lot about the shop: the bread goes out to the people rather than waiting for them to arrive.
Whether there is any extra charge for the van is something to ask them directly.
Finding the shop, and where to park
The shop sits on the old national road in Kinuboshi, on the stretch that runs east towards Saiseikai Imabari Hospital.
The hospital is about 600 metres further along the same road, and it is the easiest landmark to give a taxi driver.
The sign above the door is hand-lettered in Japanese with the reading mugi no ho written underneath in small roman letters, so you will know it when you are in front of it.
There is parking for a few cars in front of the shop and space for several more behind it.
From Imabari Station it is about 3.5 kilometres by road, which is a little over ten minutes by car and around twenty minutes by bicycle.
The nearest railway station is Iyo-Tomita on the JR Yosan Line, about 1.6 kilometres away, or twenty-five minutes on foot.
This is a residential part of town rather than a sightseeing one, so it makes most sense as a stop on the way somewhere rather than a trip of its own.
If you are riding out towards Sunrise Itoyama and the Shimanami Kaido, note that the bakery is on the opposite side of the city, about 8 kilometres from the bridge starting point.
When to go
Sunday and public holiday closing is the one thing every source agrees on, so do not plan a Sunday morning around this shop.
Saturday is less clear: some listings show the shop open Monday to Saturday, others show it closed at weekends altogether.
The opening time is also given differently in different places, with both eight and nine in the morning appearing in print.
The foundation’s official page does not publish shop hours at all, so we have not printed a time here that we cannot stand behind.
The safe plan is a weekday morning, and a phone call first if you are set on a Saturday.
Closing is in the middle of the afternoon in every version, so this is not a place to try after four o’clock.
Bread also comes out of the oven through the morning, so the counter is fullest earlier rather than later.
Other bakeries in Imabari
Because Mugi no Ho closes on Sundays and holidays, it is worth knowing which bakeries in town are open when it is not.
Bakery Shop Epi opens at six in the morning and closes on Tuesdays, and Boulangerie Soga opens at half past six and closes on Wednesdays and Thursdays.
Seikado, the old-school bakery near the prefectural hospital, opens at seven and closes on Mondays and Tuesdays.
For hard-crust European-style bread rather than soft rolls, Bread Works in Koizumi closes on Mondays, and Pain Culture out in Tamagawa is open Thursday to Sunday and sells out early.
Rilio no Pan, opposite the prefectural hospital and directly on the cycling route, is the convenient one if you are riding.
Frequently asked questions
Which days is it closed? Sundays and public holidays for certain; Saturday opening is not confirmed, so telephone first.
What time does it open? Published times disagree between eight and nine in the morning, and the foundation does not publish hours, so aim for mid-morning on a weekday.
Is there somewhere to eat the bread? Yes, local write-ups describe an eat-in corner at the back of the shop.
Is there parking? Yes, in front of the shop and behind it.
Can I pay by card? We could not confirm this, so bring cash.
Is English spoken? Assume not; pointing at what you want works perfectly well here.
Is it near the Shimanami Kaido? No, it is on the far side of Imabari from the Itoyama starting point, about 8 kilometres away.
Can visitors use the delivery van? It is a local service arranged by telephone in Japanese, so it is not practical for a short visit.
Shop information
Mugi no Ho（麦の穂）
2-144-3 Kinuboshi, Imabari, Ehime（愛媛県今治市衣干町2丁目144-3）, on the old national road near Saiseikai Imabari Hospital
Telephone: 0898-35-4441
Closed Sundays and public holidays; Saturday opening is not confirmed.
Opening hours are listed differently by different sources and are not published by the foundation that runs the shop, so please telephone before making a special trip.
Official page (Japanese): https://www.kurushimakai.jp/facility/adult/muginoho/
Our Imabari guide for Shimanami Kaido cyclists covers the rest of what the town offers before you set out.
Original article in Japanese: 「麦の穂」やさしい麦の味がするパン屋さん〜今治ランチ隊が行く！
