Beyond Sweets: Kawagoe's Full Sweet Potato Food Culture

Kawagoe's sweet potatoes (satsumaimo) are best known outside the prefecture for the sweets sold along its historic candy alley, but the crop's local food culture runs deeper than that. Cultivation took hold here in the Edo period, when Kawagoe's sandy, volcanic-ash soil proved well suited to the plant, and the city became a major supplier to Edo, old Tokyo — a history still referenced in the local nickname Koedo, or Little Edo.

Beyond candied daigaku-imo and baked sweets, Kawagoe sweet potato shows up in savory imo-gohan (sweet potato mixed into steamed rice), simmered nimono dishes, tempura, and even a locally distilled imo shochu made from the same varietal. Roasted whole sweet potatoes sold from stalls or drum-can roasters (yaki-imo) are a common cold-weather street food across the city, distinct from the sugar-heavy confections most visitors associate with the name.