Chiba's Specialty Sweet Potatoes and the History of Konyo Aoki
- Chiba
- Eating
Chiba's sweet potatoes
Chiba Prefecture is surprisingly famous for its sweet potatoes.
It boasts the third largest harvest in Japan, following Kagoshima and Ibaraki prefectures.
Katori City, Narita City, and Tako Town are especially active in sweet potato production.
Who is Kunyo Aoki, the sweet potato teacher?
It dates back to the Edo period, when Tokugawa Yoshimune, the shogun of the time, and his subordinate Ooka Echizen were active.
A famine occurred in which 10,000 people starved to death across the country. This was the Great Kyoho Famine.
At that time, the shogunate entrusted Aoki Kunyo with the mission of saving people from starvation.
Konyo turned his attention to sweet potatoes, which were not yet cultivated in Edo at that time.
He began experimenting with sweet potatoes in Makuhari in present-day Hanamigawa Ward and Kujukuri-cho in Yamatake County.
Later, during the great famines that followed the Temmei and Tempo periods, sweet potatoes saved many people from starvation.
During the Pacific War, sweet potatoes were also an important source of food, and can be said to have saved Japan from a food crisis.
There is a stone monument near Toyomi Elementary School in Kujukuri-cho that marks the site of the trial production.
The sweet potato season in Chiba Prefecture is from October to January.
The key to distinguishing a good sweet potato is to find one that is thick and stout, with a beautiful red color, firmness, and luster.