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

Yamagata is a rare place where one prefecture has fruit, rice, and beef all at once a rare place. Its basins, mountains, and rivers each nurture something different.

Specialties

It ranks No. 1 in Japan for cherry harvests, accounting for about 70% of the national total. The representative variety, Satonishiki was developed by Eisuke Sato over 16 years from the Taisho era to the early Showa era.

Western pears, especially La France pears, also rank No. 1 in Japan. This is a fruit that becomes ready to eat only after being ripened after harvest.

What suits fruit trees is a basin with large temperature differences between day and night. The Yamagata Basin is surrounded by mountains on all sides; summers are hot, and nights are cool. The same principle behind Aomori apples is at work here with different fruits.

Yonezawa beef is counted among Japan’s three great wagyu, Tsuyahime and there are also local rice varieties such as this.

Souvenirs

Cherry sweets and juice. And tama konnyaku is a skewered food sold along the approach to Yamadera.

“Dashi” is made by finely chopping eggplant and cucumber and seasoning them. A home dish eaten over rice during Yamagata’s hot summers has become a souvenir.

Shrines and Temples

Dewa Sanzan — Mount Haguro, Mount Gassan, and Mount Yudono — is a sacred site representing Japan’s mountain worship in total.

What makes these three mountains special is that visiting the three in order has long been regarded as a “journey of rebirth”. Mount Haguro represents the present, Mount Gassan the past (the dead), and Mount Yudono the future (rebirth). It is designed so that the order of worship itself has meaning. The five-story pagoda on Mount Haguro is a National Treasure, and the cedar-lined approach has 2,446 stone steps. Another feature of this region is that several sokushinbutsu, or mummified monks, are enshrined here.

Yamadera (Risshakuji Temple) is a temple with halls built into the rocks of a mountain. There are 1,015 stone steps to the inner sanctuary. It is the place where Matsuo Basho composed the haiku, "Stillness; the cicadas' voices seep into the rocks."

Sightseeing

Zao’s snow monsters are formed when supercooled cloud droplets strike and freeze onto Maries’ fir trees. Places where they can be seen on this scale are limited worldwide. The best time to see them is from late January to February.

Ginzan Onsen is a hot spring town where wooden inns from the Taisho and early Showa eras line both sides of the river.

Traditional Crafts

Nationally designated items are Tendo shogi pieces, Yamagata cast metalwork, Yamagata Buddhist altars, Oitama tsumugi silk, and Uetsu shina cloth.

Tendo shogi pieces account for the majority of domestic production. It began when small domains encouraged lower-ranking samurai to take up this work as a side job.

For details, see 【VILLAGE Report vol.43】90% of Japan’s Shogi Pieces

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References: Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries “Crop Statistics Survey,” Yamagata Prefecture, Tendo City, Tsuruoka City, Dewa Sanzan Shrine, Association for the Promotion of Traditional Craft Industries — Value Village Editorial Team