Regions & prefectures
JapanRegions & prefectures
Niigata
Japan’s rice bowl, its sake cellars and an island of exile turned gold mine.
- Capital
- Niigata
- Status
- Prefecture
- Region
- Chūbu
- Must-see
- Sado island and its drummers
- Local specialty
- Koshihikari rice, sake, hegi soba
Koshihikari rice, developed here in 1956, grows in an alluvial plain fed by six months of snow a year; Niigata has close to ninety sake breweries, more than any other prefecture. Offshore, Sado island served as a place of exile for deposed emperors and dissident monks before yielding, from 1601, the gold that financed the shogunate.
What to see there
Places, dishes and traditions tied to this territory.
In the magazine
Articles that cover this topic.