Kyoto Food Culture Museum: Ajiwai-kan

Highlight

See, touch, learn about Kyoto food in cooking classes as well as food and stock tasting

Let all your senses enjoy the food culture of Kyoto

Founded on concept of getting to know the delights of Kyoto food culture, this museum was opened in Kyoto Central Wholesale Market in April 2013, under the joint operation of Kyoto Prefecture and Kyoto city.
Exhibits include models of the five mainstays of home cooking in Kyoto, such as obansai (boiled vegetables and marinated food), nanakusa-gayu (rice gruel traditionally eaten on the 7th day of the New Year) and winter-season stewed pumpkin, all of which are used in yusoku (banquet) cuisine and kaiseki cuisine (meal before tea ceremony). Also, there are panels offering insights into the Kyoto Central Wholesale Market, the first of its kind in Japan.
The museum also has eight cooking galleys to enable visitors to join in cooking classes where professionals show how to prepare obansai and sushi and fish filleting. There are also popular talk shows where the traditions and ingredients of Kyoto cooking get explained.
Stocks made from seaweed or bonito shavings can be sampled and recipes that use obansai can be taken home - all adding to the enjoyment of this museum.