03/06/2026
📍 Kumagawa-juku, Fukui Japan
The scenic post town of Kumagawa-juku might be known as a milestone of the Mackerel Road, but it is also famous for another food product: kudzu starch! 🐟✨
Kudzu is a climbing vine that grows rampantly in Japan’s fields and mountains. Its roots can be transformed into starch, and it has been regarded as a valuable ingredient for food and medicine for centuries. 🌿
Kumagawa-juku is known as one of the three main producing areas of kudzu starch in Japan, praised for the high quality of its starch since the Edo period. ✨
When cooking, kudzu starch is primarily used to make traditional sweets that are completely transparent! Kudzu manju are one of the most famous examples of this, but some restaurants in Wakasa and especially in Kumagawa-juku also make delicious kudzu mochi, divinely fresh kudzu kiri (kudzu noodles) or even kudzu senzai! Kudzu itself has little to no taste, but add some kinako (soybean powder) and kuromitsu (black sugar syrup) and you’re in for a delicious treat!
To enjoy kudzu sweets at their best, it is important to consume then immediately after they’re prepared! When making the kudzu mochi, the owner of the restaurant was even joking saying these sweets had a 5-minute expiration date. ⏱👀
👉 Discover the Kumagawa-juku Hisotrical Post Town on our website: https://www.fuku-e.com/en/attractions/detail_1135.html
👉 Or on the on the Town’s official website: https://kumagawa-juku.com/
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Start planning your trip to Fukui at https://www.fuku-e.com/en/ (in English)
🚄 How to get to Fukui
Take the Hokuriku Shinkansen bullet train to Fukui Station from (2 h51 min) or (23 min)
From / , take the limited express train to Tsuruga Station (51 min from Kyoto/81 min from Osaka)
🌎 Traveling from outside Japan?
Get your Hokuriku Arch Pass today for unlimited travel between Tokyo, Kyoto, Osaka and Fukui (among other places)!
https://www.newgoldenroute.jp/ (in English)