On 4 August, the Swan & Lion brand will celebrate it’s 10th anniversary!! How time flies when you are having fun.

I thought it might be a good idea to have a bit of a recap of how Swan & Lion came about and have a look back at some milestones of our first 10 years.

So, how did it all begin? When I moved to Japan, I was working from home, working for a film company. It had it’s perks, like the many overseas business trips to film festivals and markets, but despite all that glamour, the core of the job involved being on the computer all day, negotiating contracts and working my way through the hundreds of emails that welcomed me in my inbox every morning. Cooking was my way to take a break, to get out of the house and have a look around the supermarkets and vegetable shops in my local area at that time, Kichijoji. I became interested in the different seasonal products that Japan had to offer and found ways to use them to make traditional British chutneys, pickles, jams and marmalade. My favourite supermarket for finding fruit and veggie treasures was Tsurukame Land, which was actually owned by UK supermarket chain Tesco for a few years. Which meant I could also pick up a packet of British digestive biscuits with my cauliflowers!

Marmalade was the first recipe that I started to really focus on. Foraging for the bitter orange natsumikan became an annual custom. In the winter months of February and March, I would cycle around residential areas, searching out natsumikan trees with my friend Michael. Michael spoke excellent Japanese and with his natural charm was able more often than not to persuade the owner to let us pick some fruit in return for some jars of marmalade that we would drop off a few weeks later. I tried many different styles of marmalade recipe until I fixed on the recipe I liked the most. And this is the recipe I still use now.

I started to write down all the various recipes I was testing in a notebook, with tasting notes, comments on colour, texture and other things I thought were important. I still have that recipe book and use it from time to time. A month or so ago I made an ume chutney and found 5 different recipes, with my detailed notes. The 2023 version turned out well, with a nice natural sourness from the ume.

My first recipe book, which I still use today. The first recipe I recorded, Ume Chutney!

It was in 2012 that I started to wonder whether these jarred products had potential as a business idea in Japan. I tested the chutneys and pickles out on my Japanese friends at hanami parties, picnics and home parties and the sweet and sour combinations were popular with the Japanese palate. So I decided to go for it and started to work on a brand design and name. I struggled coming up with a name that I liked and focused on the logo design instead. I wanted it to be traditional English but somehow lighthearted and fun. Using a coat of arms style of design allowed me to achieve this.

This is one of my first versions of the design.

The elements I chose represent periods of my life, my ethos and the origins of my brand, but all in a tongue in cheek kind of way. I mocked a design using images printed from the internet and these were transformed into a pencil drawn draft design by an extremely talented illustrator I was introduced to, Erica from Nuico Doll Studio. Erica is a soft sculpture artist and you can check out (and buy!) here work here: http://nuico.info/

Erica’s design was then digitalised by graphic designer Yumi Kohsaka from design studio the Pleiades. Yumi specialises in music and fashion and did a great job with my logo design. Yumi also designed the product labels for my first products – Natsumikan Marmalade, Tomato Chutney, Piccalilli and Sweet Corn Relish. You can check her out (and hire her!) here: www.thepleiades.net

So what exactly does the Swan & Lion logo design represent?

• The Lion – the lion has been used as a symbol for England since medieval times and here represents my English roots.
• The Reggae Collar – represents my love of reggae music, with the lion also being a symbol in the rastafari movement.
• The Swan – prior to Japan, I lived in Sydney, Australia for many years. The Sydney Swans were and still are by beloved Australian Rules football team. The swan represents my time in Australia.
• South Melbourne Football Club – the swan is wearing a collar with the letters SMFC. Before being relocated to Sydney, the Sydney Swans were called the South Melbourne Football Club.
• Peace Dove – represents my hippy nature. Steve Jobs was asked early in his career whether he was a geek or hippy, to which he replied hippy. It is a way of thinking, not a style of clothing.
• Bicycle Chain – represents my passion for cycling. From the very first days and to now, my trusted bicycle is an integral part of Swan & lion operations.
• Japanese Matsu Tree – represents my life in Japan. I also love trees!
• Fruit & Vegetables – represent the first Swan & Lion products – chutney, pickles and marmalade.

Let’s have a pictorial look back at our first 10 years. Lots of fun memories here, and some that still scare me!

4 August 2013. Swan & Lion’s first customer. Sweet corn relish. Nice choice for a hot August day.

On the way to a market

Swan & Lion’s first products

October 2013. Ark Hills market.

Swan & Lion’s first magazine appearance. Glitter magazine.

April 2014. Swan & Lion’s first pie – Roast Chicken & Mushroom.

June 2014, Swan & Lion at Taiyou marche, Kachidoki

July 2014. First delivery to National Azabu supermarket.

October 2014, Swan & Lion joins Aoyama Farmers Market

November 2014, our first Christmas Puddings go on sale.

And mince pies…..

Our first market at British Made (Watanabe & Co.). We have enjoyed a long and happy relationship with these lovely people.

British plate at our first British Fair at Mitsukoshi Nihonbashi, September 2015. We were totally unprepared for just how busy these fairs are. But we survived…..

……and were invited to join the British Fair at Isetan Shinjuku, November 2015.

This is how we delivered pies to the British Fair at Isetan……twice a day, everyday…..

The shop is being built too!

26 November, 2015, we open our shop in Kudanminami. Very tired!

Adjusting to what our customers wanted, we prepared our first salad sides for the lunch set.

March 2016. Our first hot cross buns. I think this is the recipe we have worked on the most to make them as good as we could. I think we have them just right now!

We have done catering in some pretty strange and/or challenging situations, but this is one that stays in my memory. Trying to plate food on a bouncy London bus driving around central Tokyo. Fun but very challenging!

April 2016, our first scones.

Swan & Lion pop-up in the Mitsukoshi Nihonbashi B1 food hall for the first time, July 2016

July 2016, Swan & Lion takes over the kitchen at the Brewdog Bar in Roppongi. Roast Beef British Sunday Lunch.

Up to the start of Covid we enjoyed many Sunday lunch and Christmas events at Brewdog. Many thanks to all the staff there for looking after us.

The Swan & Lion Netshop opens.

Pop Up Cafe in Nakameguro, June 2017. With my amazing wife and business partner, Kio. Swan & Lion doesn’t exist without all of Kio’s work and brain power.

Front cover of the British Chamber of Commerce Acumen magazine.

The BCCJ have been incredible supporters of Swan & Lion and we cannot thank them enough.

In early 2018 we decided to take a break from the shop and do the catering for a large Netflix film production, Earthquake Bird. Feeding up to 130 staff and crew breakfast and lunch 5 days a week for 10 weeks.

Incredibly challenging but very rewarding.

The Netflix crew, headed up head chef Hiroshi (and his amazing grill), with hard working and always fun to be with Tatsu and Yuya.
And not in the shot, Kio who kept everything together liaising with the client, devising new menus, sourcing ingredients and much more!

July 2018, chef Stuart joins Swan & Lion.

We are blessed to have him!

Swan & Lion Netshop is redesigned to include a larger range of our products, with delivery across all of Japan.

May 2019, we discover good proper rhubarb. One of the organisers of the Ark Hills market, Satou san, moved his family to Aichi prefecture to set up a small farm. Specialising in more hard to find vegetables and fruit, Sol Farms produces beautiful rhubarb which we now look forward to every year.

Follow them on Instagram at sol_farm_yatomi

We are extremely lucky to have the famous Tokyo-based modern artist Nagaba Yu design our new pie box in June 2019.

You can follow him on Instagram @kaerusensei

2019 saw the Rugby World Cup come to Japan and we were happy to meet the mascots Ren and G at the opening of the British School Tokyo’s new sports facility.

February 2020 Swan & Lion launches its email Newsletter.

Thank you for your support and for reading this (:

March 2020 we hold our first great celebration of British Pies with Pie Week. Four years later and we are looking forward to our next Pie Week in 2024.

In April 2020 we close the shop due to the Covid restrictions and for the health and safety of our staff and customers.

We switch all of our business to online, introducing new products to help customers with the eat at home necessity. We were blown away with all the support we received from our customers and cannot thank everyone for that. You saved our business.

In September 2020, despite the ongoing Covid situation, the Swan & Lion team successfully serve our loyal customers for 2 weeks at the British Fair Mitsukoshi Nihonbashi. A big thank you to (from left to right) Stuart, Yuko, Endy and Mika.

In the autumn of 2021, we fully embrace the wonderful bramley apples from Obese. We had made bramley apple pies in previous years, but I really wanted to find a new and original recipe in which we could use that lovely tart flavour of the bramley…..

….and so the Pork Pie with Bramley Apple Sauce was created, a Swan & Lion original.

We will be making these little beauties again for the Mitsukoshi British Fair, Part 2 in September.

In June 2022, we celebrated Queen Elizabeth’s Platinum Jubilee. It was such a special day for us Brits, to celebrate her incredible achievement of serving the nation for 70 years.

With the sad passing of Queen Elizabeth in September 2022, we were happy to join the festivities around the Coronation of King Charles in May 2023.

A new era, a new start…..

Just this last week, we catered an event for Manchester City, winners of the UK premier league and European champions. We assisted Manchester City to make classic British football food on a food truck under Tokyo Tower – pies, chips, mushy peas and gravy. And hot British tea! Three Manchester City players served the food to their fans – Erling Harland, John Stones and Cole Palmer. Very hot and great fun!

And so, a huge thank you to all our loyal customers and supporters for our first 10 years. We look forward to bringing you the best of British in the years going forward.