Aichi

The province

Get to know Aichi

Aichi lies in central Japan, facing Ise Bay, and is the country’s most industrial region, with automobile and parts factories around Toyota. The capital, Nagoya, is Japan’s fourth-largest city. Three of the 16th-century unifiers of Japan — Oda Nobunaga, Toyotomi Hideyoshi and Tokugawa Ieyasu — were born in this area.

Atop Nagoya Castle’s roof sit two golden dolphin-like fish, the shachihoko, and the Hommaru Palace, rebuilt using traditional techniques, displays rooms painted in gold. Atsuta Shrine is said, according to tradition, to enshrine one of the three imperial regalia, the sword Kusanagi. The industry museums tell the story of looms and Toyota automobiles and exhibit bullet trains and magnetic levitation trains.

Nagoya’s food includes local specialties: hitsumabushi, grilled eel over rice served in three stages; miso katsu, breaded meat with a dark miso sauce; tebasaki, seasoned chicken wings; and kishimen, a flat noodle. Cafés serve toast and egg with coffee in the morning.

In Inuyama, the original keep castle, a national treasure, stands above the Kiso River, and the Urakuen garden preserves the Joan tea house. Nearby, the open-air Meiji Mura museum gathers buildings from the late 19th and early 20th centuries. Tokoname and Seto are ceramics towns with kilns and lanes of workshops, and Korankei Gorge in Toyota turns red in autumn.