Protected local food
Ichida Kaki
市田柿
Ichida Kaki are dried persimmons from the Iida area of southern Nagano. They are amber and soft inside, with a fine white coat of natural sugar.
Key facts
- Registered as a protected name
- 12 July 2016
- Region
- Chubu
- Official name in Japanese
- 市田柿
- Official area (in Japanese)
- 長野県飯田市、長野県下伊那郡ならびに長野県上伊那郡のうち飯島町および中川村
Sweet, soft and dusted white
They are made from the Ichida persimmon, a small, very sweet local variety that first grew in Takamori, Nagano. The fruit is peeled, hung to dry and kneaded by hand, which makes it soft and chewy. The white powder on the outside is glucose from the fruit itself, not mould or added sugar.
Persimmon curtains
In late autumn and early winter, fog rises from the rivers and the air is just right for drying. Farmhouses hang long rows of peeled persimmons, called kaki noren or persimmon curtains, a well-known sight of the season.
Good to know
- The white powder is natural fruit sugar. Don't wash it off.
- They are light and easy to pack, a good gift. Keep them somewhere cool.
Questions travellers ask
What is the white powder on Ichida Kaki?
Glucose from the fruit that comes to the surface as it dries. It shows the persimmon was dried and kneaded properly.
Where are Ichida Kaki made?
In Iida City and Shimoina District, and in Iijima and Nakagawa in Kamiina District, all in southern Nagano.
Where it comes from
More protected foods from the same area
Crafts from the same area
Heritage stories from the same area
- Chikuma, city of the moon: the moon in every rice terrace
- Katsuragi Shugen: where mountain asceticism began
- Kawachinagano: a town where the Middle Ages live on
- Nyonin Koya: the temples where women prayed instead of Mount Koya
- Oyama Mairi: the Edo people's pilgrimage and day out
- Starry Jomon highlands: obsidian mines of central Japan
- The Kiso Road: life in the mountains on the Nakasendo
- Ueda's Shioda-daira: the ley line of sun and earth
Sources
We checked the facts on this page against these sources.