Kappabashi, the chefs' street

Stretching out in front of you is Kappabashi Dōgugai, some eight hundred metres of shops devoted to everything a professional kitchen could need: knives, pots, chopsticks, lanterns, uniforms and, above all, the plastic food you see in the windows of Japanese restaurants.

1A name with two versions

The name means ‘Kappa Bridge’, but no one agrees on where it comes from. One explanation links it to Kappaya Kihachi, the merchant buried in the temple you have just seen, and to the canal he had dug, which ran where the street is today. Another connects it to raincoats, also called kappa, which were hung out to dry on a bridge in the area. Neither can be taken as certain.

2Food you cannot eat

The kitchenware shops set up here around 1912, and over the years the district became more and more specialised. Display food, or sampuru, caught on in Japan from the 1920s and 1930s onwards, and here you will find everything from a bowl of ramen with its noodles suspended in mid-air to sushi key rings.

In 2003, to mark its ninetieth anniversary, the shopkeepers' association put up the golden statue of Kappa Kawatarō, the street's mascot.

Take a good look at the shop signs: kappa pop up everywhere, as if the legend had won the argument over the name.

3What to look for

• The golden kappa Kawatarō, about 1.5 metres tall.
• The giant chef's head on top of the Niimi shop, on the southern corner.
• The sampuru window displays, with dishes identical to the real thing.