Half Day Kakunodate Tour of Crafts Culture and Cuisine

We will have our tour briefing at ORENCHI. Information regarding Kakunodate Town as a samurai town and also as a merchant’s town will be given here. The tour will begin by going into the merchant’s district first and experiencing Kabazaiku using mountain cherry barks, exploring a century old soy sauce and miso brewery, and visiting manors of the Samurai district. Information regarding Kakunodate’s significance will be given here.

Established in 1876, Yatsuyanagi Shoten is a manufacturer and distributor of kabazaiku, a traditional handicraft designated by the national government. The company has been producing products in Kakunodate for generations, carrying on the traditional techniques and methods of production, while at the same time being conscious of modern lifestyles. The craft of making these products has been passed down for 200 years since the late Edo period (1603-1868), when it became a domestic occupation for the warriors of Kakunodate. Each piece of cherry bark work is made by hand by craftsmen who shave the bark of the mountain cherry tree into thin strips and attach them to the wood with a trowel. On this tour, you will receive instruction from the seventh generation family and experience making your own coasters by scraping the cherry bark yourself. You can take your coaster home as a souvenir. This tour unravels the charm of this traditional craft experience, which is done entirely by hand.

It is said that Ando Brewing began with the year 1853 which is inscribed on the miso barrels. The main shop was rebuilt in 1883 and retains its original appearance. The miso and soy sauce brewing factory and brewing warehouse are located at the end of the street, and the brewing water, which is essential for production, has been used from a well on the premises since the company was founded to preserve the traditional taste of the products. On this tour, a seventh-generation family member will guide you through the historic buildings and into the soy sauce storage warehouse, which is normally closed to the public. You will then taste and compare three different types of soy sauce made using different methods, and at the end of the tour you will receive your own personalised bottle of soy sauce! Experience the richness of food in Akita, where the fermentation culture remains strong.

Kakunodate is a former castle town which flourished during the Edo period. Known as the “Little Kyoto of Tohoku”, the town is home to a district 800-metres in radius consisting of samurai residences and traditional architecture popular with both domestic and international tourists. The samurai residences lining the town’s most famous street are nationally protected Traditional Buildings. Kakunodate, which looks different in every season, is beautiful no matter when you visit - spring, summer, autumn and winter. The length of the walk is just right and will surely make you forget about time.

Believed to have been built in 1809, the Ishiguro Family Residence is the oldest of the six residences that are open to the public in Kakunodate’s historic samurai district. It is also the only home that is still occupied by the family’s descendants. For this reason, only the historic half of the home is open for public viewing. As a high-ranking family with substantial wealth and landholdings, the Ishiguro were relatively unaffected by the dismantling of the samurai class in the Meiji era (1868–1912). From the late 1800s until the 1950s, the Ishiguro rented land to tenant farmers in exchange for a percentage of the annual rice yield. The tour will take you into areas of the Ishiguro family that are open to the public, and will give you an insight into the history of the Samurai and the Samurai spirit that is rooted in the present day.