Aichi Prefecture Specialties, Souvenirs, Shrines, Temples, and Travel | 47 Prefecture Guide

Aichi is a place that has both a major consumer market (Nagoya) and a route people traveled (the Tokaido). Its food and crafts can both be explained through these two factors.

Specialties

Hatcho miso is a soybean miso made with only soybeans and salt, without rice koji or barley koji. It is brewed in large wooden vats, then weighted with stones stacked in a cone shape and aged for more than two years.

Nagano miso uses the cold to ferment slowly. Aichi’s Hatcho miso is the opposite, aged for a long time in a warm, humid climate. That is why it does not use koji. Even with the same miso, the method becomes entirely different to suit the climate.

This rich miso is used in dishes such as miso katsu, miso nikomi udon, and doteni Nagoya meshi. Aichi also ranks high nationwide in the harvest of cabbage, butterbur, and shiso.

Souvenirs

Uiro is a steamed sweet made with rice flour and sugar. It became known nationwide after being sold at Nagoya Station.

Hatcho miso, shrimp crackers, tenmusu. And Tokoname ware teapots. Fired from iron-rich clay, they change color the more they are used.

Shrines and Temples

Atsuta Jingu Shrine (Nagoya City) is a shrine that enshrines the Kusanagi Sword, one of the Three Sacred Treasures it is. Within the grounds stands a large camphor tree said to be over 1000 years old, and a deep forest remains despite its city-center location.

Because it is regarded as second in rank after Ise Jingu, it has attracted deep faith since ancient times. The "Nobunaga Wall," said to have been donated by Nobunaga after praying for victory before the Battle of Okehazama and then winning, still remains today.

Toyokawa Inari (Toyokawa City) is, despite its name, not a shrine but a Soto Zen temple It is. At Reikozuka within the grounds, more than a thousand fox statues offered by worshippers line the site. It is known for bringing prosperity in business.

Osu Kannon (Nagoya City) is also a temple that houses the oldest manuscript copy of the National Treasure Kojiki.

Sightseeing

Nagoya Castle, the Tokugawa Art Museum, Inuyama Castle (one of the castle keeps designated as National Treasures), and Ghibli Park.

Arimatsu retains rows of old shibori merchants’ houses along the former Tokaido. The shibori here spread as souvenirs for travelers. Its origins differ from production areas that shipped goods to Kyoto or farther away.

Traditional Crafts

There are 15 nationally designated items. Arimatsu-Narumi shibori, Tokoname ware, Akazu ware, Seto Sometsuke ware, Mikawa Buddhist altars, Toyohashi brushes, Nagoya Buddhist altars, Owari cloisonne and others.

Aichi is the only prefecture that has two of Japan’s Six Ancient Kilns: Echizen, Seto, Tokoname, Shigaraki, Tamba, and Bizen.

For details, see [VILLAGE Report vol.25] 15 items, including two of Japan’s Six Ancient Kilns

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References: Aichi Prefecture, Nagoya City, Tokoname City, Seto City, Toyokawa City, Agency for Cultural Affairs, Association for the Promotion of Traditional Craft Industries — Value Village Editorial Team