Without a doubt, a visit to any heritage city calls for an explorative look at its local cuisine, culture, and historical sites, with souvenir shops often taking up a substantial part of such a journey. 

Specialties such as coffee, tea, and cashew nuts often come to mind when planning a list of things to buy in Saigon, but the last decade has seen an increased diversity of hand-embroidered gifts, eco-friendly bags, and handmade pottery that have become increasingly popular for visitors.

For a place where you’ll find all of that and more, we joined singer Nammy Mikami at KITO, a souvenir shop that’s considered by many Japanese tourists and residents to be an indispensable destination. 

Twenty-five-year-old Saigon souvenir store KITO has seen the city’s transformation

Established in the late 1990s in the infant stages of Ho Chi Minh City’s re-opening, owner Mr. Dương Văn Kiệt’s unique taste and tonal flamboyance formed the foundations of the business, with his name in Japanese katakana pronunciation adopted as the shop’s name. Owing to his knack for hospitality and bustling first location on Saigon’s Đồng Khởi Street, KITO garnered much attention from Japanese visitors living both inside and outside of the country.

“My interests extends beyond Eastern cultures and French aesthetics, but my greatest love has always been Vietnamese culture,” Kiệt, originally from the South of the country, explained, emphasizing how Vietnamese-style pottery, especially southern pottery from places such as Biên Hòa, takes a special place in his heart.

KITO combines pottery and antiques with áo dài fashion featuring a Japanese touch

Kiệt’s love for pottery and kinship with the Japanese people eventually led him to meet Imade Mio, his now wife from Japan who initially seized a business opportunity in search of Vietnamese artisanal souvenirs for her souvenir shop in Kyoto. Fate led to a marriage that linked both countries, and Mio moved to Vietnam to run KITO together with her Vietnamese husband.

Despite initial focus on pottery and ceramics, Mio helped to diversify KITO’s products into the realm of Áo Dài fashion, handmade bags and wearables — designed by Mio and made possible by her choice of unique fabric and material colors that embodies both the Vietnamese spirit and aesthetic cues loved by both locals and tourists. 

KITO’s “one-piece”-style áo dài are now also common amongst locals — from the casual Fridays at the office to holidays and once-in-a-lifetime celebrations, Mio’s áo dài’s are a seamless combination of Japanese visual taste and Vietnamese tradition.

A trip to KITO is also a visit to one of Ho Chi Minh City’s richest cultural neighborhoods

Surviving the pandemic, KITO eventually moved from 78 Đồng Khởi street to its current home at 13 Tôn Thất Thiệp Street in Ho Chi Minh City’s District 1. 

Surrounded by several heritage buildings such as the hundred-year-old 42 Tôn Thất Thiệp apartment block and Sri Thendayuthapani Hindu Temple, KITO’s immediate vicinity is a vibrant historical pocket that was once known as the city’s center of Tamil Indian commerce. The street also forms an intersection with Tôn Thất Thiệp street, home to chợ Cũ (Old Market), a century-old street market that still exists today.

At the new location, Kiệt and Mio reorganized the collection into two levels — the first dedicated to souvenir and fashion merchandise designed or curated by Mio, and the second reserved for Kiệt’s pottery and artifact collection that hails from Vietnam, France, China and several other locations. A walk through KITO takes you from a world of irresistible everyday gifts into a nostalgic space imbued with the essence of Southern Vietnam and every part of the world that influenced its development.

Kiệt’s future plans include completing his dream of transforming the second level of KITO into a full-fledged miniature museum. Work is in progress and curating artifacts is becoming daily work.

Follow KITO’s facebook and instagram page for a look into Kiệt & Mio’s world where the aesthetic tastes of two countries combine to become one.

SAUCEFISH is committed to honest gourmet and lifestyle content creation but is not responsible for unexpected closures and changes to the operating hours of featured establishments. Visitors are advised to contact the establishments in advance if possible if a visit is of great importance.

Translated by: Mervin TF Lee