The king of flavor in winter from the Echizen coast, the "Echizen Crab."
Echizen Crab is well known across the country as the top brand for snow crab, and the catch in Echizen is prized as the best in Fukui Prefecture.

★Daily necessities are rustic, sturdy, and have taste
Echizen earthenware items were used as daily necessities, with jars, earthenware pots, and mortars as the 3 main utensils.
The soil used in crafting the Echizen earthenware utensils contains lots of iron, so that when heated, the surface turns a dark brown/reddish brown when it is made into pottery.
For this reason, Echizen earthenware items were unlikely to leak, and so in addition to being used for storing liquids like water and alcohol, and dyes like aizome, etc., they were also used to store grains and preserve food.

★This place has continued to be a pottery village since the late Heian period
The birth of Echizen's pottery history dates back to approximately 850 years ago, during the late Heian period.
Originally, the people in the region baked earthenware pots, but the technique of Tokoname ware was introduced in the late Heian period.

Echizen earthenware was quite celebrated in its heyday, towards the end of the Muromachi Period when they had the largest kilns in the Hokuriku region and the largest on the Sea of Japan, however it faced a gradual decline in the mid-Edo period, and production volume shrank.

After the Second World War it regained attention and was counted as one of the six ancient kilns* of Japan, and also many potters gathered from all over the country because of the establishment of Echizen pottery village. Currently we are attempting to craft a variety of new pottery that utilizes the traditions of baking earthenware.
New history is being added to the Echizen pottery village area.
《 From the Fukui Prefectural Museum of Ceramics website http://www.tougeikan.jp/about-ware.html 》
＊The six ancient kilns of Japan... Bizen ware, Shigaraki ware, Tokoname ware, Seto ware, Tamba ware, and Echizen ware came from the six ancient kilns

★Oda Nobunaga Statue "Echizen Ninomiya Tsurugi Shrine"
Oda, Echizencho, which houses Tsurugi Shrine, is known as the birthplace of the of ancestors of Oda Nobunaga, whose illustrious family acted as village headsman of the Oda, Echizencho private farm estates and served as priests of Tsurugi Shrine.
In the Ouei era, the military governor of the Shiba clan of Echizen at the time had discovered the talents of a child born to priests at Tsurugi, and dispatched him to Owari.
At this time, they had named themselves "Oda" by taking the name of their birthplace.

★Virtuous priest of Yue, Temples and Shrines of the High Monk Taichō
The high monk Taichō was born in the Asuka period (the end of the 7th century), in Ozu, Echizen (now Fukui City, Sanjuhasshacho, Taichō-Ji Temple).
He was said to be a prodigy at a young age, and when he was 14 years old, in response to seeing the eleven-faced Goddess of Mercy Juuichimenkannon in a dream, he spent time training in his hometown of Ochisan. After an arduous penance, it was said that he was finally able to realize the teachings of Buddha.
After being the first to climb Mt. Hakusan he was known as the father of Hakusan worship and the father of Sangaku Shinko (mountain worship).
Taichō had left behind many legends, and had been praised as "the virtuous priest of Yue" when he had passed in Ochisan in the year 767. He was 86 years old at the time.

○Ochisan/Ochi Shrine
Ochi Shrine (Ochi Jinja) is the shrine at the summit of Ochisan.
It is said to be a sacred mountain where the gods meet, and known as the mountain where the high monk Taichō, known with love and respect as the virtuous priest of Yue, had trained and obtained the enlightenment of Buddha.

○Asahi Kannon Fukutsuji Temple
Many are familiar with Kannon of Asahi, a temple opened by the high monk Taichō 1300 years ago in the Nara period and remains open now.
From the slightly elevated Mt. Asahi, weather permitting, you can see Mt. Hakusan, on which Taichō founded a temple.