Protected local food
Hiyama Kaisan
檜山海参
Dried sea cucumber from the Hiyama coast of southwest Hokkaido. Fishing families dry it without salting, and it is prized as a top grade in Chinese cooking.
Key facts
- Registered as a protected name
- 30 March 2020
- Region
- Hokkaido
- Official name in Japanese
- 檜山海参
- Official area (in Japanese)
- 北海道久遠郡せたな町、二海郡八雲町、爾志郡乙部町、檜山郡江差町及び上ノ国町、奥尻郡奥尻町
A Chinese delicacy from Hokkaido
Dried sea cucumber is a luxury ingredient in Chinese cooking, served at banquets and New Year. Hiyama Kaisan is made on the Sea of Japan coast of southwest Hokkaido: in Setana, Yakumo, Otobe, Esashi, Kaminokuni and on Okushiri island. Haishen is its Chinese name.
Spiky and springy
The rocky seabed, with patches of sand, grows sea cucumbers covered in pointed tube feet. Dried, they keep that spiky look, which matches the prized spiky grade in Chinese cooking. Soaked back to life, they are thick, hold their shape and have a pleasant, springy bite.
Dried by fishing families
Local fishers and their families process the catch while it is fresh. They dry it carefully without salting it first, so cooks can skip the long desalting step.
Good to know
- Esashi is a historic herring port with old merchant houses and the replica warship Kaiyo Maru, about two hours from Hakodate.
- Dried sea cucumber takes days to soak and prepare, so most visitors try it in Chinese restaurants rather than cook it.
Questions travellers ask
What does kaisan mean?
It is the Japanese reading of the Chinese word for sea cucumber, 海参, which is haishen in Chinese.
Where is Hiyama?
It is the southwest corner of Hokkaido, facing the Sea of Japan, west of Hakodate.
Where it comes from
More protected foods from the same area
Crafts from the same area
Heritage stories from the same area
- Coal, steel and port: Hokkaido's northern industrial revolution
- Esashi: the herring town that outshone Edo
- Gyoda: the town of tabi storehouses
- Kitamaebune: the merchant ships that made Japan's port towns rich
- Masuda: a medieval masterpiece of Japan
- Otaru, the heart of Hokkaido: a merchant city saved by its people
- Sacred land of salmon: 10,000 years on the Nemuro Strait
- Takaoka: the castle town that became a merchant town
- The Kamikawa Ainu: living with the kamuy of Daisetsuzan
Sources
We checked the facts on this page against these sources.