Nagano · Zenkoji MonzenNo.775★★Open in map →

Oyaki

— Nagano's stuffed buns, eaten on the Zenkoji approach

foodOff the trail — and worth it

Northern Nagano's stuffed bun, wheat or buckwheat dough folded around cooked vegetables. On the Zenkoji approach, a courtyard of converted merchant storehouses keeps an open hearth where the buns are finished the old way, a short stop between station and temple gate.

FromNagano Station
~15 minLoop bus, or a 20-min walk
Get off atZenkoji-Daimon bus stop (Alpico Binzuru-go)
On foot
Oyaki

Directions ↗

The sweet spot

Oyaki is not obscure. It is sold at every station kiosk and roadside stop in the prefecture, so rarity is not the point here. What is easy to miss is that a bun finished in ash and charcoal is a different food from the steamed one in a plastic sleeve, and that the hearth sits directly on the road you walk from the station up to Zenkoji.

Where it is

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What to look for — in walking order

Kuraniwa courtyard, Daimonchoアルク0211 / CC BY-SA 4.0

Zenkoji-Daimon crossingthe point where the approach narrows and the temple gate comes into view uphill
Kuraniwa, the stone courtyarda paved yard the storehouse frontages face on all sides, open to walk through
The fifteen shopfrontsfood, crafts and a bridal salon filling the block's kura and newer frontages
Ogawa-no-sho's oyaki heartha charcoal counter run by a maker from the mountain village of Ogawa
The approach uphillthe straight climb out of the courtyard toward the gate of Zenkoji

How to actually get there

Nagano Station, bus stop 1 → Zenkoji-Daimon (Alpico Binzuru-go loop bus).
Zenkoji-Daimon → the Kuraniwa courtyard (walk ~2 min, set back from the approach road).
Order at the hearth counter, then continue up the approach to the gate of Zenkoji (walk ~10 min).

Binzuru-go loop bus from Nagano Station: Nagano Station, bus stop 1 →(Alpico Binzuru-go, the Zenkoji loop)→ Zenkoji-Daimon, then about two minutes on foot to the courtyard. The whole trip runs to roughly a quarter of an hour. Walking instead takes about twenty minutes and is a single straight climb up the approach from the station.
Back to Nagano Station: The same loop runs toward the station from the stop on the opposite side of the road. Buses finish earlier in the evening than the trains do, so read the posted timetable at the stop before you commit. Failing that, the approach back down is one straight street and downhill the whole way.

Directions from my location (Google Maps) ↗

About the place

Oyaki belongs to the mountain districts of northern Nagano, where wheat and buckwheat did the work that rice does elsewhere. Thin dough is wrapped around a filling that has already been cooked and seasoned. Pickled nozawana greens, aubergine, pumpkin, dried daikon, sweet azuki paste. How the bun is finished varies by household and by shop: griddled on iron, baked in an oven, or steamed in a basket. The oldest method sears it on an earthenware pan and then buries it in the hot ash of an irori hearth. Daimoncho, the stretch of the Zenkoji approach nearest the temple, keeps that fire in a storehouse courtyard.

How to enjoy it

The shops here open through the middle of the day rather than at dawn, so the block reads better as a stop on the way down from Zenkoji than on the way up. Ordering at the hearth counter rather than the takeaway case is what changes the food: the bun arrives straight off the charcoal instead of out of a warmer.

Background & history

Northern Nagano and the Azumino basin are named as the home of oyaki. In villages where paddy land was scarce, flour from wheat and buckwheat carried the meal. The traditional finish belongs to the irori, the sunken hearth of a farmhouse: the bun is seared on a hōroku pan, then buried in ash to cook through. Daimoncho takes its name from the great gate of Zenkoji and grew as a post town on the Hokkoku Kaido, filled with pilgrims walking north. Its disused merchant storehouses were later reopened as a courtyard of shops.

Before you go

Cash: Walking through the courtyard costs nothing. Carry cash for the shops, and note that the bus fare is paid on board.
Good to know: The courtyard is outdoors and stone-paved, with shelter only under the eaves of the storehouses. Each shop keeps its own hours and closing days, so not every frontage will be open on the same visit.
Another way: From Zenkoji itself, walk back down the approach for about ten minutes; the block faces the Zenkoji-Daimon crossing. Nagano Dentetsu's Gondo Station is a similar distance away to the east.
After you get off: From the Zenkoji-Daimon stop the courtyard entrance is a couple of minutes away, set back from the approach road between the storehouse frontages. Look for the stone-paved yard rather than a shop sign.