Fukushima Prefecture Specialty Products, Souvenirs, Shrines and Temples, and Travel | 47 Prefecture Guide

Fukushima has three distinct climates and cultures within a single prefecture. From west to east, they are Aizu, Nakadori, and Hamadori. Because mountain ranges divide them, the climate, food, and crafts all differ.

Specialties

Its peach harvest is among the highest in Japan. The area around Fukushima City in Nakadori is called the “Fukushima Fruit Line,” where peaches, pears, grapes, and cherries come into season one after another.

In sake, Fukushima has a record of taking the highest number of gold awards at the Annual Japan Sake Awards for many consecutive years.

This is said not to be by chance, but has established a Sake Academy at the prefectural High-Tech Plaza and has helped produce brewery owners as a result. Technique does not improve when left on its own.

Aizu Koshihikari rice and Shirakawa soba are also known nationwide.

Souvenirs

Anpo-gaki are made by fumigating astringent persimmons with sulfur and drying them. The inside remains jelly-like and has a different texture from ordinary dried persimmons. It originated here in the Taisho era.

Milk sweets wrapped in silver paper, usukawa manju buns, and Akabeko. Akabeko has been passed down as a folk toy to ward off epidemics, and its head sways gently.

Shrines and Temples

Isasumi Shrine in Aizumisato Town is the ichinomiya of Iwashiro Province and a shrine said to preserve the origin of the place name Aizu in total.

The best-known site in Fukushima is probably Former Shoshuji Entsu Sansodo (Sazaedo). a National Important Cultural Property with a double-helix structure in which the ascending and descending paths never cross. It was built in 1796. A practical idea to keep worshippers from passing each other created architecture that is rare even globally. The idea of a double helix itself also exists in the West, but there are very few examples realized in wood.

Iimoriyama (Aizuwakamatsu City) is the site where the Byakkotai took their own lives, and Sazaedo stands on this mountain. Ioji Temple (Fukushima City) is a temple Basho visited in The Narrow Road to the Deep North and is known as such.

Sightseeing

Ouchi-juku is a nationally designated Important Preservation District for Groups of Traditional Buildings, lined with thatched-roof post-station inns. It is known for "Takato soba," eaten using a leek in place of chopsticks.

Tsurugajo Castle, also known as Aizuwakamatsu Castle, is, has Japan’s only castle keep with red roof tiles. This was the result of glazing devised to keep the tiles from cracking in the cold. Its visual character comes from the conditions of a cold region.

In the Bandai Highlands, Goshikinuma is a group of ponds formed by the 1888 eruption of Mount Bandai. The water color differs from pond to pond.

Traditional Crafts

Nationally designated items are Aizu lacquerware, Aizu Hongo ware, Obori Soma ware, Oku-Aizu Showa karamushi weaving, and Oku-Aizu braided crafts: five items in all.

Aizu lacquerware is one of Japan’s three great lacquerware traditions, alongside Yamanaka lacquerware and Kishu lacquerware. And Obori Soma ware continues today, with kilns opened in various places even as makers evacuated after the earthquake and nuclear accident.

For details, see 【VILLAGE Report vol.41】The Last of the Three Great Lacquerware Traditions

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References: Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries “Crop Statistics Survey,” National Research Institute of Brewing “Annual Japan Sake Awards,” Fukushima Prefecture, Aizuwakamatsu City, Aizumisato Town, Agency for Cultural Affairs, Association for the Promotion of Traditional Craft Industries — Value Village Editorial Team