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The water that has supported the life of the market for more than 400 years |
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The ground water that flows beneath the city of Kyoto is an essential element for the production of famous products made in the city, such as tofu and the local sake produced in Fushimi (the southern part of Kyoto). In addition, most of the Kyoto style restaurants use well water to make their soup stock - the soft well water is necessary for the delicate flavor of the kelp stock, which forms the heart of Kyoto style cuisine.
The ground water is also closely related to the birth of the Nishiki Market. From the Heian Period, the area was blessed with good groundwater, which was suitable for preserving fish and fowl, so the fresh fish shops naturally concentrated there. In recent years, a scientific research report was published showing that the groundwater in the Kyoto basin amounts to 21.1 billion cubic meters, matching the amount of water in Lake Biwa. It emphasizes how rich a natural resource the groundwater of Kyoto is, and what an important role it plays in the quality of Kyoto cuisine.
The Nishiki water, the groundwater that has provided support for Nishiki Market up to the present is, for the market, the water of life itself. However, in 1960, construction work on the Hankyu railway almost cut off the flow of groundwater to part of the market area. This threat to the water supply was a crisis that endangered the very existence of the market itself. The Nishiki Market Guild responded by gathering its resources and digging an even deeper well, ensuring a continuing water supply and enabling the market to overcome the crisis.
Bustling with vitality even today, Nishiki Market handles a lot of food that depends heavily on water, such as fresh fish, tofu and yuba, wheat and fu (a breadlike food made of wheat gluten), and Japanese pickled goods. This vitality is only possible due to the abundant flow of groundwater in the area. |
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| The Nishiki Market in 1927 |
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| You can draw water from the well at the Nishiki Tenmangu Shrine |
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