Local cuisine is food that has developed uniquely under the influence of each region’s culture, climate, produce, and history. This holds true also for Hokkaido, the northernmost island of Japan. Hokkaido’s food culture is a mixture of the food culture of the indigenous Ainu people and the Japanese, Western, and Chinese food culture introduced during the period when settlers from Japan’s mainland moved into the island.
The three characterizing features of Hokkaido’s food are the regional differences in ingredients used and types of foods, the fusion between Ainu cuisine and Japanese cuisine, and the Western influences on the food culture. So, we can find here foods that are enjoyed all over Japan but also some foods that are not used so often in Japanese cuisine, for example, butter in many dishes. On the other hand, many traditional Hokkaido dishes are not based on the Japanese staple of rice, because there used not to be rice varieties that could be grown in the cool climate of Hokkaido. The unique Hokkaido cuisine has been developed from a combination of these local traits.
In this blog post, you will learn all about the food culture of Hokkaido. First, we take a look at the basics of Hokkaido food culture: where does it come from and what kind of ingredients are used. Then, there are sections about the most iconic Hokkaido dishes and a short introduction to Ainu food culture which is the base of many dishes that are eaten in Hokkaido today. I hope you enjoy this virtual culinary journey to Hokkaido!
The foundation of Hokkaido food culture
Hokkaido, the second largest island in Japan, boasts a unique and diverse food culture, shaped by both its geographical location and historical background. Hokkaido is renowned for its unique food culture that blends both Japanese and Western influences. The island’s cuisine features a wide range of ingredients, including fresh seafood, dairy products, and vegetables, which are sourced from the surrounding fertile lands and waters of the region.
The characteristics of Hokkaido’s food culture are threefold:
- First, the food ingredients and culinary styles vary from region to region due to its vast land area.
- Second, Hokkaido’s food culture is influenced by both traditional Japanese cuisine and the food culture of the Ainu people, reflecting its relationship with Japan proper and Ainu.
- Third, the migration of Japanese farmers into Hokkaido and the agriculturalization of the region played a significant role in shaping its food culture, reflecting its relationship with the West.
Interestingly, Hokkaido’s food culture has been shaped by several factors, such as the introduction of foreign technology during the island’s colonization process and the challenge of producing rice in the region’s cold and harsh climate. As a result, many of Hokkaido’s local dishes use Western flavors and ingredients, such as butter, cheese, and potatoes, which are not commonly found in other parts of Japan.
Exploring Hokkaido’s food culture can offer a fascinating insight into the region’s attractions. From the famous Sapporo ramen noodles to the savory jingisukan (grilled lamb and vegetables), Hokkaido’s culinary offerings are a reflection of the island’s history, geography, and climate. Whether you are a food lover or simply curious about Hokkaido’s culture, discovering the island’s unique cuisine is an experience not to be missed.
The Ainu people, who are the indigenous people of Hokkaido, have had a significant impact on the food culture of the region. The local dishes in Hokkaido are largely influenced by the Ainu’s traditional food culture, which is why many of the dishes feature salmon as the main ingredient. The Ainu people have been fishing for salmon in the rivers of Hokkaido for centuries, and it has become an integral part of their culture and diet. Like that, Ainu’s influence on Hokkaido’s food culture is significant, and it has helped shape the region’s unique culinary identity.
One of the most popular local dishes in Hokkaido is Ishikari nabe, a hot pot dish that consists of salmon, vegetables, and tofu cooked in a miso-based broth. Chanchan yaki is another dish that features salmon, where the fish is grilled with vegetables and miso sauce. Ishikari nabe and chanchan yaki have been recognized as one of the dishes in the ‘100 traditional dishes of agricultural and fishing villages’ list in Japan. Additionally, jingisukan, a grilled mutton or lamb and vegetables, is also considered one of the three major local dishes of Hokkaido. More about this trio a bit later in this blog post.
The food culture in Hokkaido has been influenced by several other cultures, including America. When Japanese settlers arrived in Hokkaido, they sought advice from consultants who could teach them how to apply Western science in Japan. Many of these consultants were from America and introduced an American way of doing agriculture. However, the climate in Hokkaido was so cold that they couldn’t grow rice, which is the main crop of Japan. Therefore, they started farming wheat and potatoes, following the American model of growing crops. One of the major influencers of agriculture in Hokkaido is the famous Hokkaido University, which was established in 1876 as Sapporo Agricultural College. The habits of eating lots of meat and bread are also thought to come from American influence.
Although the official plan to introduce Western food culture in Hokkaido was canceled and forgotten when the Hokkaido Kaitakushi (the colonization office of Hokkaido) was abolished, the American food culture was found to be established in Hokkaido after all. This can be seen in the abundant use of such foodstuff as butter, ketchup, milk, and ice cream as well as other ingredients used often in American and European kitchens. For example, the famous Hokkaido soup curry can be made just from local ingredients such as potatoes, carrots, onions, and meat.
Another peculiarity of Hokkaido food culture is that people living in Hokkaido like sugar a lot, and they also add it to foods that you don’t usually add sugar to. For example, some Hokkaido dwellers add sugar to tomatoes or natto (fermented soybeans). In addition, especially in eastern Hokkaido, people sprinkle sugar on corn dogs! The reason for this is also part of the history of colonization of Hokkaido. When the Japanese settlers had just arrived in Hokkaido, they didn’t have sugar available. It was a luxury product. But now Hokkaido is the biggest producer of sugar beets in Japan, so Hokkaido dwellers can use sugar as much as they want in any dish they want.
Fresh local ingredients as the cornerstone of Hokkaido food culture
The most important thing in cooking is fresh ingredients of good quality. Hokkaido has them in abundance. Hokkaido, especially the Tokachi area, is the bread basket of Japan and Hokkaido is the biggest producer in Japan of many familiar crops, such as onions and potatoes. And of course, being an island, the waters around the coastline of Hokkaido offer their gifts to the fishers and Hokkaido is indeed known for its superb seafood.
The Japanese settlers introduced large-scale agriculture in Hokkaido after the mid-19th century. The indigenous Ainu people did practice some agriculture but their plots were small and crowing crops wasn’t their main means of living. Now many cities and towns in Hokkaido specialize in growing certain vegetables. For example, Kitami City in northern Hokkaido produces 20% of all the onions produced in Japan and onions are also an essential ingredient in Kitami’s famous yakiniku (焼き肉, grilled meat) sauce. Yoichi town in western Hokkaido has many fruit orchards and accordingly, many wineries that use a part of the harvest to make wine. Like this, the cities and towns have started to integrate their special products into their food cultures and also to build refining industries that use the produced crops.
As I wrote earlier, in the early settler times, it was not possible to grow rice in Hokkaido. However, now rice cultivation is also possible in Hokkaido since the climate has become warmer but also because new, more cold-resistant rice varieties have been developed. The northern limit for rice cultivation in Hokkaido is today around the latitude of Shimokawa town, but it might crawl even further to the north in the future because of climate change. On the other hand, in southern Hokkaido, where the Japanese have lived longer than elsewhere in Hokkaido, rice growing has had a bit longer history because of the culture and milder climate. An example of these kinds of rice-growing communities is Yakumo town in south Hokkaido. Famous Hokkaido rice cultivars are for example nanatsuboshi and yume pirka (which has a name of mixed Japanese and Ainu: yume (夢) is Japanese and means ‘dream’, pirka is Ainu and means ‘good’ or ‘beautiful’). In addition to using the local rice in a variety of dishes, one of the main uses of the Hokkaido-grown rice is sake brewing. You can read more about sake brewing in Hokkaido in other blog posts of ours, for example, Enjoy Hokkaido and its wines, beers, spirits, and other drinks, Sip and Savor Otaru! or The Rumoi Area: Savory Sake, Rare Seabirds, and Wonderful Sunsets.
Hokkaido is not only known for its vegetables but also for the produce of its livestock farming. There are a lot of dairy products produced in Hokkaido and Hokkaido butter is probably the most famous of them. While Hokkaido has its mountainous regions like the rest of Japan, there are large plains, too, and cattle farming and dairy cow farming prosper especially in the vast plains of eastern Hokkaido. Hokkaido winters are cold and snowy, so feeding the cows in winter is more difficult than in milder climates. The cost of fodder can be very expensive, so instead of producing plain milk, the farmers tend to refine the milk to get more income. That’s why most of the milk produced in Hokkaido is processed for instance into butter, cream, cheese, and ice cream rather than just selling it as it is. You can include a visit to a cow farm in your travel plan, too. You can sample an example of our sustainable itinerary with a tour of the Inoue cow farm in northern Hokkaido in our previous blog post Adventure Travel in Hokkaido: Sustainable Traveling to Empower Women.
Yet another famous culinary experience in Hokkaido is the abundant seafood that can be caught in the cold waters surrounding the island. Visiting Hokkaido without eating sushi or a mouthwatering kaisendon (海鮮丼)—a bowl of rice topped with a variety of fresh seafood—is a shame, so do seize the opportunity while in Hokkaido and enjoy some of the best seafood you’ll probably ever eat in your life! Again, each town and city has a specialty of its own, so visiting different places gives you a chance to indulge in different delicacies. For example, the town of Toyoura is known for its scallops, Hakodate City for its squid (among many others), Shikabe town for its kombu seaweed, and Rumoi City for its herring and herring roe.
Famous Hokkaido dishes
Hokkaido, with its rich sea and soil, is renowned for its cuisine. Among the local dishes worth trying are Ishikari nabe, chanchan yaki, and jingisukan which have been selected on the ‘100 traditional dishes of agricultural and fishing villages’ list to represent Hokkaido food culture. Traditional Hokkaido cuisine differs from modern fare by focusing on simple flavors reliant on ingredients such as salt and miso. The local dishes with a long history exemplify this simplicity, and here we would like to share some of them with you.
Ishikari nabe (石狩鍋) is a soul-warming hotpot dish with salmon, tofu, daikon radish, shiitake mushrooms, and other vegetables boiled in miso soybean paste and kombu kelp broth. It is named after the Ishikari River, the largest river in Hokkaido. In Obihiro in the Tokachi area, it’s sometimes called Tokachi nabe. The main ingredient, salmon, is an iconic fish of both the Ishikari River and Tokachi River, hence the dish’s names. Ishikari nabe has been eaten by the fishers of Hokkaido since the Meiji era (1868–1912).
Chanchan yaki (ちゃんちゃん焼き) is another dish made of the famous Hokkaido salmon. It’s a dish of grilled salmon and vegetables, such as cabbage and onions, but sometimes hokke (Okhotsk Atka mackerel) is used instead of salmon. The vegetables are steamed, the salmon is added to the pan and coated with miso paste, and finally, the dish is baked until the salmon is done. You can sample this mouthwatering delicacy for example in Shibetsu in eastern Hokkaido.
Jingisukan (ジンギスカン) is the only dish of the trio that doesn’t have salmon on its list of ingredients. Jingisukan is a barbecue dish with a mix of delicious mutton or lamb dipped or marinated in barbeque sauce and grilled with fresh vegetables. There are two schools about the barbeque sauce: the first one advocates marinating the meat in the sauce before grilling it and the second one promotes grilling the meat as it is and then dipping it into the sauce when it’s done. The latter style is especially popular in eastern and southern Hokkaido. Whichever style you use, jingisukan is delicious! The dish has its roots in lamb farms of Hokkaido that provided mutton and lamb on a larger scale. Before that, mutton was rarely eaten in Japan. Jingisukan became popular in the Showa period (1926–1989), so it’s a relatively new dish but it has firmly established itself on the Hokkaido gourmet map.
There are of course other famous Hokkaido dishes than the three famous ones introduced above. Ramen is a dish loved all over Japan and other countries, too. Many cities and regions have their specialty ramen and Hokkaido is not an exception. Hokkaido’s three famous ramen are Sapporo miso ramen (札幌味噌ラーメン) (with miso broth), Hakodate shio ramen (函館塩ラーメン) (with salt broth), and Asahikawa shoyu ramen (旭川醤油ラーメン) (with soy sauce broth). And there is one newcomer to the ramen map of Hokkaido: Muroran curry ramen (室蘭カレーラーメン) with, you guessed it, curry broth. To have the most out of your Hokkaido experience, remember to have a hearty bowl of steaming hot ramen! To be honest, one of my favorite ways to eat ramen is not a traditional bowl of ramen with broth and toppings, but ramen salad (ラーメンサラダ), which is just a normal salad with ramen noodles and semi-cooked runny egg and/or a lot of dressing. Ramen salad is available in many izakayas (Japanese-style pubs) in Hokkaido but you can rarely see it for example in Tokyo, so give it a try when you’re in Hokkaido.
It is not probably possible to write about Hokkaido specialties without mentioning sushi and other dishes that require extremely fresh seafood as their main ingredient. While sushi is popular all over Japan, the Hokkaido seafood is of especially good quality due to its cold waters and abundance of marine resources. As mentioned earlier, each town often specializes in catching a specific type of fish or other seafood, so they have their representative seafood dishes, too, such as unidon (ウニ丼, rice bowl topped with sea urchin) in Rishiri, kaisendon (海鮮丼, rice bowl topped with seafood) in Otaru, and ikuradon (イクラ丼, rice bowl topped with salmon roe) in the area around Shakotan.
Fish can be caught in large quantities during the spawning season but the problem is how to preserve all that fish for later. One of the famous Hokkaido fish preserves or pickles is nishinzuke (ニシン漬け) or herring pickle. It is prepared by mixing herring cut into bite-sized pieces with radish, carrot, and cabbage, and pickling them with malted rice. Herring pickles stand out because they need less time to marinate and can be eaten soon after pickling. You can read more about the fermented foods of Hokkaido in our previous blog post Hokkaido: A Treasure Chamber of Healthy Fermented Food.
Another famous dish especially in the Sapporo area is soup curry (スープカレー). Soup curry was developed in the 1970s in a then-coffeeshop (now a soup curry restaurant Ajanta/アジャンタ (an outbound link, in Japanese only)) and it is based on yakuzen (薬膳) or Chinese/Japanese medicinal cooking that aims to restore the body in addition to nourishment. Soup curry offers a delightful twist to the classic Japanese curry, featuring a broth infused with Chinese medicinal spices and garnished with an array of chopped vegetables like green peppers, potatoes, eggplant, and pumpkin. Each eatery provides diverse protein choices, such as chicken, beef, shrimp, scallops, and more. White rice is usually served as a side, but some restaurants also serve soup curry with nan bread. You can read more about the history and the ingredients used in soup curry in this Live Japan article (an outbound link). Sapporo alone is home to 200 specialty soup curry shops that cater to different preferences.
The Ainu food culture
Many of the Hokkaido dishes are based on the ingredients and foods Ainu—the indigenous people of Hokkaido and the areas surrounding it—have been using for hundreds of years. In the old times, Ainu were not farmers but hunter–gatherers, who used the abundant blessings of the surrounding nature to make their living. Ainu did practice some small-scale farming around their houses (cise in Ainu), though, but did not cut trees and open large fields for farming. They grew some grains, such as foxtail millet and barnyard millet, and mixed them with rice that they got through trade with Japanese people.
The main diet of Ainu, however, was not based on grains but on meat. The most important sources of energy for Ainu were salmon and venison. There are numerous rivers in Hokkaido and when the fall arrives, the salmon return from the ocean to the rivers to spawn. That is when Ainu would catch their salmon. Because there is only a short time of the year, when salmon can be caught, most of the salmon was dried and eaten during the long winter. Another Ainu staple was venison. The deer can of course be caught any time of the year but the time when the meat is the most delicious and high in fat is the fall. The salmon and deer were so abundant in number that even though Ainu considered all the living things as kamuy or deities, the salmon and deer were not kamuy; they were rather gifts from kamuy (Cep kor kamuy (the deity that governs the fish) and Yuk kor kamuy (the deity that governs the deer) respectively). Of course, Ainu caught other game, too, such as brown bears, rabbits, squirrels, and raccoon dogs as well. In addition to salmon, other seafood Ainu consumed were all fish they could catch in the rivers, lakes, and ocean around Hokkaido as well as whale meat, shellfish, and shrimp.
The wild vegetables Ainu harvested in the mountain included turep—The bulbs of ooubayuri lily (大姥百合, Cardiocrinum cordatum var. glehnii)—and pukusa/kito Siberian onion, a variety of wild garlic (in Japanese gyoujaninniku (ギョウジャニンニク／行者葫), literally in English “pilgrim’s garlic”), and sprouts of giant butterbur, fern, and bracken. And of course, they also picked berries—such as haskap, which tastes like bilberries (wild blueberries), sikerpe (the berries of Amur cork tree), and kutci (hardy kiwi)—mushrooms—for example, yukkarus (maitake/舞茸 in Japanese, hen-of-the-woods in English) and perokarus (shitake/椎茸)—and nuts and seeds—yam (chestnuts), nisew (accorns), neskoninum (walnuts), and pekanpe (water chestnuts). The representative Ainu agricultural products are barnyard millet and foxtail millet, which Ainu have been cultivating for a long time, but later Ainu have been growing for example beans, potatoes, and corn, too. All of these were eaten fresh when they were in season but the majority was preserved and saved for winter.
The daily dish for Ainu was a thick soup or a stew called ohaw or rur in Ainu (the name depends on the region). Ohaw is not prepared according to a specific recipe, but using seasonal meat and vegetables when they are available or in winter, the ingredients saved during summer and fall are used. Typically ohaw contains fish or meat with wild vegetables and seaweed and it’s seasoned with salt and fat. The soup is eaten together with a gruel made of grains (different types of millet, corn, etc. but also rice that was obtained through trade) grown in the small gardens and spiced with leek, salt, and fat. Sometimes the gruel was also the main meal.
For festivities, the grains were steamed, and special dishes, such as sito (dumplings) and rataskep (a thick stew with vegetables and beans, corn, or pumpkin, often garnished with Amur cork tree berries) were prepared. A dish that has gained a lot of attention because it was featured in the manga/anime series Golden Kamuy (an outbound link, in Japanese only), is citatap, a dish made of fish or meat that is minced finely with a knife and eaten raw. In the manga, the dish is prepared from a squirrel but today fish is mostly used. In our blog post about fermented food culture in Hokkaido, we introduced some Ainu dishes, too. One of my favorites is peneimo (or potceimo/imosito/muninimosito/penekosoymo depending on the region): dumplings made of fermented potatoes. The potatoes have a very strong and stinging smell when they are fermenting but when they are made into dumplings, the smell disappears and the dumplings taste nice and sweet. Yet another Ainu dish that has found its way into Japanese cuisine as well, is ruybe, frozen salmon that is half-thawed, cut into slices, and eaten raw. You can find this dish in many places in Hokkaido and many Hokkaidoans don’t even know that it’s originally an Ainu dish. Ruybe or ruype is Ainu language and means ‘frozen (ru) food (ipe)’.
If you want to learn more about Ainu food, you can take a look at the Foundation for Ainu Culture’s webpage (an outbound link) or Hokkaido Museum’s webpage about Ainu food, clothing, and housing (an outbound link).
Most of the Ainu dishes are prepared and enjoyed in the privacy of Ainu homes, but there are some Ainu restaurants around Hokkaido. One of them, Marukibune (丸木舟), is at Ainu kotan at Akanko onsen town (with another restaurant facility located at Marukibune Inn at the shore of Lake Kussharo). Here you can taste some older Ainu dishes, such as potceimo, and newer fusion dishes such as Ezo shika venison curry. The restaurants in Upopoy (National Ainu Museum and Park) in Shiraoi offer different Ainu dishes and also some interesting Ainu fusion kitchen dishes. If you want to try some pickled pukusa/kito (Siberian onion), you can do that for example, in Sapporo, in an izakaya chain called Kanro (晩酌処かんろ).
Enjoy Hokkaido gourmet all year around
Hokkaido is renowned for its unique and diverse food culture. Despite its long and cold winters, Hokkaido offers a plethora of delicious culinary delights that can be enjoyed all year round. Whether it’s the savory chanchan yaki, the warming Ishikari nabe, the tantalizing jingisukan, or the famous Sapporo soup curry, Hokkaido offers a diverse range of tastes and flavors that cater to all palates.
If you’re looking to explore the unique food culture of Hokkaido, look no further than the Hokkaido tours we have to offer. Contact us today to make a reservation and indulge in the delectable flavors of Hokkaido’s food culture throughout the year. As always, the fastest way to get in contact with us is by pressing the ‘Contact us’ button below. We hope to hear from you soon!
