Protected local food
Tokachi Kawanishi Nagaimo
十勝川西長いも
A white, crisp nagaimo (Chinese yam) from the Tokachi plain around Obihiro, Hokkaido. Short and bottle-shaped, sticky when grated and exported abroad.
Key facts
- Registered as a protected name
- 12 October 2016
- Region
- Hokkaido
- Official name in Japanese
- 十勝川西長いも
- Official area (in Japanese)
- 帯広市、芽室町、中札内村、清水町、新得町、池田町、足寄町、浦幌町、鹿追町、豊頃町
Seed kept clean since 1971
In 1971 growers in the Tokachi area of Hokkaido brought in high-quality seed yams. They have grown the seed in isolation ever since, selecting healthy, disease-free stock year after year. The soil is a black volcanic soil with a thick layer of humus, ideal for long roots.
Short, white and crisp
Compared with other nagaimo it is short and shaped like a sake bottle. Skin and flesh are white and slow to brown. Raw, it is crisp and juicy; grated, it turns into a strongly sticky tororo. It is widely exported and well regarded abroad.
How to eat it
Slice it raw into sticks with soy sauce and wasabi, grate it over rice or soba, or pan-fry thick slices with butter and soy sauce, a Hokkaido favourite.
Good to know
- Obihiro is the hub of Tokachi, with flights from Tokyo. Look for nagaimo at local farm shops and supermarkets.
- On a Hokkaido trip, also try Yubari melon in summer and Hamanaka uni on the east coast.
Questions travellers ask
What is nagaimo?
A long Japanese yam, also called Chinese yam. It can be eaten raw, crisp and slightly sticky, or grated into tororo.
Where is it grown?
On the Tokachi plain in eastern Hokkaido, around Obihiro, Memuro and eight other towns and villages.
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.