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

Ibaraki is a prefecture that has consistently ranked among the top in Japan for agricultural output. It has broad plains, and the major consumer market of Tokyo is next door. These two factors have directly become an industry.

Specialties

It produces about 90% of Japan’s dried sweet potatoes. Production is especially concentrated around Hitachinaka City and Tokai Village.

Why this region? Dried sweet potatoes are a food made by cutting steamed sweet potatoes and sun-drying them in the dry winter wind. There are winds from the sea, little rain, and not too much frost. These conditions were all in place.

Aomori apples, Yamagata cherries, and Ibaraki dried sweet potatoes all say the same thing. Producing regions are not chosen; the climate decides them.

Melons, lotus roots, and chestnuts also rank No. 1 in Japan for harvest volume. And then there is Mito natto. This comes from the overlap between the area’s history as a soybean producer and the development of railways, which made it possible to send perishable goods to Tokyo.

Souvenirs

Dried sweet potatoes are a food that becomes a souvenir as they are. They keep at room temperature, are light, and are made only from sweet potatoes. Preserved foods becoming souvenirs is a pattern we have seen many times in this series.

Mito natto, sweets made with plums, and Kasama ware vessels.

Shrines and Temples

Kashima Jingu Shrine in Kashima City is the head shrine of the approximately 600 Kashima shrines said to exist across Japan in total.

Kashima Jingu Shrine, together with Katori Jingu Shrine (Chiba) and Ikisu Shrine (Ibaraki), the “Three Shrines of the Eastern Provinces” is called. In the Edo period, visits to these three shrines after making the Ise pilgrimage became popular. In Heian-period records, the only shrines bearing the title jingu were Ise, Kashima, and Katori. This means that a place so far from the capital was granted that level of status. The kaname-ishi stone in the precincts is said to hold down the giant catfish that causes earthquakes.

Kasama Inari Shrine in Kasama City is counted as one of Japan’s three great Inari shrines, alongside Fushimi and Toyokawa. This town became a pottery-producing area partly because the market of shrine visitors already existed.

Sightseeing

Kairakuen Garden is, alongside Kenrokuen in Kanazawa and Korakuen in Okayama, one of Japan’s three great gardens. It has about 3,000 plum trees of around 100 varieties.

What makes this garden distinctive is that it was opened to the people of the domain from the time it was first created that idea. The name means "enjoy together," and that is where it comes from.

Fukuroda Falls is one of Japan’s three great waterfalls, and in winter it sometimes freezes. The nemophila at Hitachi Seaside Park are in bloom from mid-April to early May.

Traditional Crafts

Nationally designated items are Yuki-tsumugi silk, Kasama ware, and Makabe stone lanterns: 3 items.

Yuki-tsumugi was inscribed on the UNESCO Intangible Cultural Heritage list in 2010 It was registered. The condition is that all three elements are met: hand-spun thread, hand-tied kasuri patterns, and weaving on an izari loom.

For details, see [VILLAGE Report vol.38] The Tsumugi Listed by UNESCO

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References: Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries, “Crop Statistics Survey” and “Statistics of Agricultural Income Produced”; Ibaraki Prefecture; Mito City; Kashima Jingu; Agency for Cultural Affairs; Association for the Promotion of Traditional Craft Industries -- Value Village Editorial Team