Thursday, July 21, 2011

Hyogo: More on Meibutsu

A larger PDF of this page is available here
After writing last week's post about Toyooka and its bag industry I got the Hyogo prefecture citizen's newspaper in my mailbox... well everyone in the prefecture did. What did it have on the cover? A map of the meibutsu food items produced around the prefecture.

A few of the generally known ones were there:
  • Octopus たこ from Akashi
  • Beef 肉用牛 from, well, all over the prefecture
  • Onions たまねぎ in Awaji
  • Tanba Black Beans 丹波黒 in Tanba, although they put the picture in Taijima and Harima also.
  • Crab かに in Taijima
 Some suprises:
  • Chrysanthemums きく in Settsu
  • Eggplant なす in Tanba
  • Figs いちじく in Settsu
~ Bonus geography lesson ~
The internal divisions of Hyogo that follows the pre-Meiji era boundaries more or less are as follows:
([name in kanji]:[color on map])
  • Settsu (摂津: green) is the area that consists of the urban Hanshin area centered around Kobe and including Nishinoimya. Where I live.
  • Harima (播磨: orange) is the area of mixed rural and industrial use land spanning from Settsu to the Okayama prefecture border centered around Himeji. Spanning the coast from Akashi to Ako.
  • Tanba (丹波: blue)is the rural agrarian highlands that are above the Keihanshin (Kyoto-Osaka-Kobe) urban area. Centered around the town of Sasayama.
  • Tajima (但馬: pink) consists of Hyogo's Japan sea coast and the agricultural areas in in the northern reaches of the prefecture. Centered around the city of Toyooka and the onsen town of Kinosaki.
  • Awaji (淡路: purple) consists of the agricultural island between Hyogo and Shikoku. This area has only recently seen a boom thanks to the Awaji bridge built in the 90's.
The entire paper is free to download from the website here. [in Japanese]

1 comment:

angryparsnip said...

I am going to try and download the paper and map. You know how much I love reading maps.

Awaji onions are the best. I just finished the last of the onion soup I bought there.
This area has always been a favorite of mine. I am so happy you always find the time to drive me over to this most beautiful area.

cheers, parsnip