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

Tokyo may not strongly bring to mind specialty products. However, There are 23 nationally designated traditional craft items, the most of any prefecture is the reality.

Specialties

Edo-Tokyo vegetables is the collective name for heirloom varieties that have been grown in this area from the Edo period into modern Tokyo. Komatsuna, Nerima daikon, Mikawashima greens, and Magome hanjiro cucumbers.

However, many of these were once no longer grown due to urbanization, and have been revived in recent years in total. Something that disappeared once is later brought back. It is a pattern that appears again and again in this series.

In the island areas, there are ashitaba from Hachijojima and kusaya from the Izu Islands. Tokyo Metropolis is an administrative area extending about 1,700 kilometers from north to south.

Souvenirs

Kaminari-okoshi is a sweet made by steaming rice, drying and frying it, then binding it with syrup. It keeps well and is light. It is a form perfected as a souvenir for temple visitors.

Ningyo-yaki, Hiyoko, and Edo Kiriko glasses. If you want to choose a craft as a souvenir, this is a good entry point.

Shrines and Temples

Senso-ji Temple is said to be the oldest temple in Tokyo. Shops have lined Nakamise, the street from Kaminarimon Gate to Hozomon Gate, since the Edo period.

Meiji Jingu Shrine (Shibuya City) was founded in 1920. That forest was not originally there. It is a man-made forest, planted through volunteer labor by youth groups from across Japan using about 100,000 trees donated from around the country. What is more, the tree species were chosen on the assumption that the forest would become a natural woodland hundreds of years later. Like Ise’s Shikinen Sengu, it is a design based on a span of time the builders themselves would not live to see.

Kanda Myojin Shrine (Chiyoda City) is the guardian shrine of Edo, and the Kanda Festival is one of Japan’s three great festivals. Zojo-ji Temple (Minato City) is the family temple of the Tokugawa clan.

Sightseeing

A defining feature of sightseeing in Tokyo is that old and new things are within walking distance of each other. Senso-ji Temple and Tokyo Skytree are right next to each other.

The museum district of Ueno, the used-book district of Kanda, and Tsukiji Outer Market. And the Ogasawara Islands were registered in 2011 as a World Natural Heritage site. This, too, is Tokyo.

Traditional Crafts

23 items, the highest number in Japan. Edo Kiriko, Edo glass, Honba Kihachijo, Tokyo Some Komon, Edo Woodblock Prints, Edo joinery, and Edo fishing rods.

What they have in common is that they were made for townspeople, not feudal lords. Each time sumptuary laws were issued, they developed in a direction that placed effort into details hidden from the outside.

For details, see [VILLAGE Report vol.34] 23 items, the most in Japan

Articles About This Prefecture

See all articles about Tokyo　 ← List of 47 Prefectures

References: Tokyo Metropolitan Government, Tokyo Traditional Crafts Association, Taito City, Hachijo Town, Meiji Jingu Shrine, Ministry of the Environment, Association for the Promotion of Traditional Craft Industries — Value Village Editorial Team