Protected local food
Minakuchi Kanpyo
水口かんぴょう
Ribbons of dried gourd from Minakuchi in Koka, Shiga, still dried in the sun as they were 400 years ago. They turn soft and soak up flavour when simmered.
Key facts
- Registered as a protected name
- 27 March 2024
- Region
- Kansai
- Official name in Japanese
- 水口かんぴょう
- Official area (in Japanese)
- 滋賀県甲賀市水口町
Gourd ribbons
Kanpyo is a long ribbon peeled from a yugao gourd and dried. Simmered in sweet soy, it is the filling in kanpyo-maki and futomaki sushi rolls. Minakuchi kanpyo cooks up soft and soaks up flavour well.
Dried in the sun
Minakuchi in Koka city, Shiga, has made kanpyo for about 400 years from gourds of its own native strain. Makers still dry it in the sun, not with hot air. In Hiroshige's famous print series The Fifty-three Stations of the Tokaido, from around 1833, the Minakuchi picture shows women making the town's famous kanpyo.
A festival sushi
Locally it is essential in Ukawa-zushi, a sushi made for spring festivals.
Good to know
- Minakuchi was a post town on the old Tokaido road between Edo and Kyoto.
- Koka is ninja country. The Koka-ryu Ninja House is a short drive away.
Questions travellers ask
What is kanpyo used for?
It is simmered in sweet soy and rolled into sushi, or tied around foods as an edible string.
How do I prepare it?
Rub it with salt, rinse, soften in water, then simmer in dashi with soy sauce and sugar.
Where it comes from
More protected foods from the same area
Crafts from the same area
Heritage stories from the same area
- Esashi: the herring town that outshone Edo
- Hida no Takumi: 1,300 years of master woodworkers in Takayama
- Iga and Koka: in search of the real ninja
- Lake Biwa Canal: the waterway of hope from Otsu to Kyoto
- Lake Biwa: villages that live with the water
- Saigoku 33 Kannon Pilgrimage: Japan's 1,300-year journey of the heart
- The railway across the sea: Nagahama, Tsuruga and Imajo
- The Six Ancient Kilns: pottery born and raised in Japan
Sources
We checked the facts on this page against these sources.