Protected local food
Tokuji Yamanoimo
徳地やまのいも
A fist-shaped Japanese yam from the Tokuji area of Yamaguchi city. It is grown in rotation with rice, and when grated it turns very thick and sticky.
Key facts
- Registered as a protected name
- 18 November 2020
- Region
- Chugoku
- Official name in Japanese
- 徳地やまのいも
- Official area (in Japanese)
- 平成17年9月30日における行政区画名としての山口県佐波郡徳地町（現山口県山口市徳地地区）
Shaped like a hand
Tokuji yamanoimo is an icho-imo, a Japanese yam named after the fan-shaped ginkgo leaf. It has a short neck and broad shoulders and looks like an open palm or a fist, with wavy edges. The skin is smooth with few hairy roots.
Sticky when grated
Grated, it becomes a thick, sticky paste called tororo, and Tokuji yams are known for being especially sticky.
Grown in rice paddies
Good icho-imo usually needs land where the groundwater is low but the soil does not dry out. Farmers in Tokuji, in the hills of Yamaguchi city, Yamaguchi, selected short-necked yams and grow them in rotation with rice. That lets them grow good yams even in the shallow topsoil of the paddies.
Good to know
- Try tororo poured over hot rice (tororo-gohan) or a bowl of soba with grated yam on top.
- Yamaguchi city has the five-storey pagoda of Ruriko-ji, one of Japan's finest. Tokuji is in the hills to its northeast.
Questions travellers ask
Can I eat it raw?
Yes. In Japan it is usually eaten raw and grated. Some people get itchy hands from peeling it, so wear gloves.
Where is Tokuji?
It is a rural district of Yamaguchi city in Yamaguchi Prefecture, at the western tip of Honshu.
Where it comes from
More protected foods from the same area
Crafts from the same area
Heritage stories from the same area
Sources
We checked the facts on this page against these sources.