Kappabashi

Kappabashi is where restaurants in Tokyo buy their equipment - about eight hundred metres of street with something over a hundred and seventy shops, each specialising: one sells only ceramics, one only lacquer, one only noren curtains, one only signage, one only bamboo baskets, several only knives. The knife shops are the reason many visitors come, and they carry the full range from stamped stainless to hand-forged carbon steel, with sharpening and engraving offered. The other draw is sampuru, the plastic food models that sit in Japanese restaurant windows: made from vinyl chloride, hand-painted, priced like the real dish several times over, and sold here both as trade goods and as souvenirs, with workshops where you can make one. It is a wholesale street that tolerates retail rather than a shopping district, and shops keep trade hours - early closing, and many shut on Sundays.

History

The street's name is thought to come either from the raincoats, kappa, that residents hung to dry on the bridge, or from a merchant, Kihachi Kappaya, who paid for the Shinhorikawa River to be dug for water management; because the name sounds like the mythical kappa, the shops have taken the creature as their mascot (Wikipedia, Kappabashi-dori).

What you'll find

• Trade specialisation - over 170 shops each selling one category of restaurant supply.
• Knives - stamped to hand-forged carbon steel, with sharpening and engraving.
• Sampuru - the plastic food of restaurant windows, sold and made in workshops.
• A wholesale street - trade hours, early closing and many Sunday closures.

When to go

Weekday mornings, when the trade shops are open. Two to three hours.

Practical notes

Many shops close on Sundays and most close by five or six. Some are wholesale only. Carbon steel knives rust and need care - ask before buying. Plastic food is expensive for what it is.

Nearby

Asakusa and Sensoji are east; Ueno is north-west.

Key facts