Yamaga Japanese Chestnut Sweets Fair 2023

Yamaga City in northern Kumamoto Prefecture has long been a strategic point on the Buzen Highway and is also known as a hot spring resort. The Kikuka and Shikakita regions produce the largest amount of chestnuts in western Japan. The Kikuka and Shikakita areas also boast the highest production and quality of chestnuts. The annual "Yamaga Japanese Chestnut Sweets Fair" has begun in the area that produces the most chestnuts in western Japan. This year, 34 stores offer a wide variety of chestnut sweets! Mont Blanc, chestnut buns, chestnut soft serve, chestnut parfait...ah, chestnut lovers and those with a sweet tooth will not be able to resist!

Yachiyo-za and Yamaga Lanterns
Chestnut walk along Buzen Highway

First, we will go to the old Toyozen Highway that runs through the center of Yamaga City. The old road was used as a highway for the Edo period (1603-1867) and still retains old stores and other buildings. We will visit the Yachiyo-za Theater, a playhouse built at the end of the Meiji period, and the Yamaga Lantern Folk Crafts Museum, which introduces the elegant Yamaga lantern making process, along the route of Kuikamachi, while touring Japanese chestnut sweets. The "Yamaga Japanese Chestnut Sweets Fair" banner is a landmark. A stamp rally is also underway in which visitors can visit three stores if they bring a pamphlet. Seven shops in the Yachiyoza area are participating. Chestnut monaka from a Japanese sweets shop, chestnut pizza from a pizzeria, chestnut parfait and chestnut zenzai from a café, and the classic Mont Blanc from a confectionary store are just a few of the many chestnut sweets on offer.

Passing through the shopping district of Nakamachi on the old Toyozen Highway, the chimneys of a sake brewery come into view. It is the "Chiyozonoen Sake Brewery," established in 1896. Across the street is "Kiya Honten," another long-established store specializing in koji (malted rice). Kiya Honten has an even longer history, having been established in 1842 (the 13th year of the Tempo Period) at the end of the Edo Period.
Here, Yamaga Japanese chestnut amazake ice cream "Koji no Blessing" (350 yen) is sold. Yuji Iguchi, the ninth generation owner, says, "We knead chestnut paste into our standard amazake ice cream. Of course, that amazake is made by Kiya Honten. Along with the slight taste of chestnuts and amazake, you can feel the texture of grains. Chestnut pulp? Actually, they are grains of rice malt. It is indeed an ice cream made by a koji maker.

The downtown Somon area, where Kiya Honten and other stores are located, was a rice distribution center. For this reason, sake breweries, koji (malted rice) makers, rice cellars, and rice cracker shops line the streets. The "Komekome Soumon Tour," which takes visitors on a stroll through the area, includes a visit to the Kiya Honten and other stores, and Iguchi-san explains the koji making process. After Corona, customers are gradually returning to the area. The number of stores participating in the Japanese chestnut sweets fair is increasing in this neighborhood," he smiles. One such shop is the "Information Transmission Center Yunomachi Chaya," a Japanese-style cafe in a 130-year-old renovated private house, where the "Japanese chestnut ice cream zenzai" comes with your choice of tea for 900 yen. Let's wander around a little longer.

Roadside Stations and Product Pavilions are Also Full of Chestnuts
Eat this and buy that.

Local enthusiasm for chestnuts is high. In fact, during the chestnut harvest season, not only the "Yamaga Japanese Chestnut Sweets Fair," but also the "Western Japan's Best Chestnut Week" (September 15-October 9), which is the main event of the product center, and the "Shikakita Imo/Kuri Pride Road" (September 21-October 21) by restaurants in Shikakita Town. In addition, there is preferential campaign information. At 10 of the participating establishments of the Japanese chestnut sweets fair and the Imo/Kuri Proud Road, visitors whose name has "chestnut" in it will receive preferential services.
Petit Cafe Oguri no Ki at Michi-no-Eki Kahoku offers a "Marron Mini Parfait" (1,000 yen). It is a chestnut parfait topped with marron soft serve, marron whip, marron paste, chestnut candied chestnuts, and chestnut-shaped cookies. The "Chestnut Pie" (370 yen per piece), a product participating in the Imo-Kuri Kaido, is available in limited quantities and will be closed as soon as it is gone during the period. Those who have "chestnut" in their name will receive a 50 yen discount on four kinds of soft-serve ice cream. The chestnuts are sold at a numbered ticket booth on weekends and national holidays. That is why so many visitors come for the chestnuts. The earlier you buy chestnuts, the better!

Roadside Station Mizube Plaza Kamoto" in the southern part of Yamaga City also participates in the Japanese chestnut sweets and Chestnut Week. （During the sweets fair, the station's bakery "Kanpanyu" sells "Yamaga Chestnut Anpan" (200 yen per piece) and "Seigle au Marron" (400 yen per piece), rye bread with chestnuts, on Saturdays and Sundays only. And this station is also one of the facilities targeted in the campaign for people whose name has "chestnut" in it, offering a hot spring bathing coupon that can be used the next time you use the station.

The "Shikao Products Center" in Shikao Town should not be forgotten. The center is participating in both Japanese chestnut sweets and Chestnut Week, offering "Kurimanto" (151 yen per piece) as a sweet. The moist-skinned manju buns are filled with chestnuts in a refined white bean paste. It can be taken as a souvenir.
As a Chestnut Week participating restaurant, the restaurant "Yasuragi-kan" won with its standard dish, "Iwahara Futagozuka Ancient Tomb, Excavation Curry" (1,100 yen). What? Why a burial mound? In fact, the Iwahara Futagozuka Tumulus, the prefecture's largest posterior frontal round burial mound, is located near the product center. Ancient rice is served in the shape of a burial mound, surrounded by a handmade curry roux with pears. The spoon is shaped like a shovel! Dig into the ancient rice with this...and the rest is just for fun. If you have time, visit the Kumamoto Prefectural Museum of Decorative Tombs across the street.

Japanese chestnut sweets made with heart and soul
Travel with sweet memories

Harada Shokuhin Seizosho, located in the Kutami district in the southern part of Yamaga City, is another store participating in the Japanese chestnut sweets fair. Eiji Harada, the fifth generation of the family, runs the business with his father, Shinya. The most important ingredients for making bean paste are high-quality domestic beans and Yamaga's limpid underground water. The cooked beans are ground with a grinder, placed in a fine mesh net, and placed in a tank filled with groundwater. The water is stirred to settle the bean paste. Scoop it up into a sarashi bag and squeeze it to make the bean paste smooth. Sugar is added and the mixture is further kneaded. The company also wholesales its bean paste to Japanese confectionery stores in Yamaga City, and some of the stores participating in this Japanese chestnut sweets fair also use Mr. Harada's bean paste.

The Japanese chestnut sweet is "mizu-yokan with Japanese chestnuts" (370 yen per piece). It is made by kneading chestnut paste into a paste of white bean paste, which is made from tebo-mame, a smaller bean than kidney beans. The paste-like bean paste of mizuyokan is our original method," says Mr. Harada with a calm expression on his face. Mr. Harada, with a calm expression on his face, quietly puts his heart on the line. The mizuyokan with chestnuts glides smoothly on the tongue. It is surprisingly smooth. The sweetness and flavor of the chestnuts are moderately light, and the aftertaste is light and pleasant. There is no sticky sweetness. Harada Foods' mizuyokan comes in six varieties. You will want to bring all of them, not just the chestnut ones, as souvenirs.

The next stop was Kikuka Winery. While producing and selling wine, the winery also has a café and a store selling select Yamaga products at its AIRA RIDGE. The Yamaga Japanese chestnut sweet is "Japanese chestnut soft serve ice cream" (400 yen). For an additional 100 yen, you can have it topped with Mont Blanc cream and chestnut nectar. The rich chestnut flavor of the candied chestnuts and Mont Blanc cream goes well with the light, sweet Japanese chestnut soft serve ice cream. Chestnut tarts are also available in limited quantities during the period.

Finally, we visited "Yamaga Japanese Chestnut Confectionery An" located in the sightseeing facility "Anzu no Oka" (Anzu Hill). President Takashi Ueda of Anzu Corporation, which manages the store, is actually in the position of secretariat for the Yamaga Japanese Chestnut Sweets Fair. He said, "The event has grown through the management of the participating stores themselves. The number of visitors has been increasing every year, so much so that we are running out of pamphlets very quickly. Of course, there are so many chestnut sweets. The store sells "Kurikoro Mousse" (390 yen), "Japanese Chestnut the Mont Blanc" (440 yen), "Yamaga Japanese Chestnut Puff" (210 yen), and "Whole Marron Pie" (300 yen). By the way, if you put "chestnut" in the name, you can get a 10% discount. I envy you, Mr. Kurita, Mr. Kuriyama, and Mr. Kurihara...Yamaga is a chestnut paradise!

Yamaga Japanese Chestnut Sweets Fair official website
Yamaga Explore Navi