Protected local food
Yamae Kuri
やまえ栗
Sweet, fragrant chestnuts from Yamae, a forested village in southern Kumamoto. Pastry chefs prize them, and they appear in first-class airline desserts.
Key facts
- Registered as a protected name
- 27 March 2024
- Region
- Kyushu & Okinawa
- Official name in Japanese
- やまえ栗
- Official area (in Japanese)
- 熊本県球磨郡山江村
Chefs' chestnuts
Yamae chestnuts are very sweet, with a deep, true chestnut flavour and aroma. Pastry chefs and cooks rate them highly, and sweets made with them have been served on a luxury cruise train and in international first class.
A chestnut village
About 90% of Yamae village, in the Kuma district of Kumamoto, is forest, and wild chestnuts grew everywhere. In the Edo period villagers paid tax in chestnuts. From the early Showa era the whole village worked on growing top-quality nuts, which were presented to Emperor Showa.
The village treasure
Today about 80% of the village's farmers grow them, and the village even passed a Yamae chestnut ordinance to protect what it calls its treasure.
Good to know
- Yamae is next to Hitoyoshi, a hot spring town on the Kuma River.
- Chestnut season runs from late August to October. Look for kuri sweets such as mont blanc and kuri kinton in Kumamoto shops.
Questions travellers ask
When are they harvested?
From late August to October.
What are the best ways to eat them?
Roasted, in chestnut rice (kuri gohan) or in sweets like mont blanc.
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.