Fukuoka · HaruyoshiNo.434★★★Open in map →
Karashi Mentaiko
— Fukuoka's chilli-cured pollock roe
Fukuoka's most famous food is chilli-cured pollock roe, and the place to meet it is a covered market in Haruyoshi rather than an airport gift counter. Fishmongers, picklers and roe sellers stand shoulder to shoulder under a single arcade.
Karashi mentaiko is pollock roe, salted and then steeped in a liquid of chilli, kombu, sugar and soy until it takes on colour and heat. Fukuoka treats it as an everyday food rather than a delicacy, and the plainest place to see that is Yanagibashi Rengo Ichiba in Haruyoshi. One covered arcade of about 100 metres runs off the main street toward the Naka River, with fishmongers, greengrocers, picklers and roe sellers packed shoulder to shoulder along a single narrow lane. Restaurant cooks buy their fish here in the morning, which is how the market earned its nickname, the kitchen of Hakata.
Background & history
The market grew out of one man's fish stall. He bought his catch at the Ohama fish market, carted it to this lane and sold it, and other traders gathered around him until the row became a shopping street; the traders formalised themselves as a cooperative in 1992. Mentaiko is younger than the market. A Hakata shopkeeper who had eaten Korean-seasoned roe as a child in Busan re-worked it for Japanese palates and put it on sale on 10 January 1949. He took out no patent and taught the method to anyone who asked, which is why Fukuoka has many makers rather than one.
What to look for — in walking order
- The arcade entrance from Watanabe-dori
- the covered lane's street mouth, turning off a wide avenue into a narrow market row
- The fish counters
- catch from the Genkai Sea, with wild fugu and monkfish on the slabs in the winter months
- Roe, dried goods and pickle shops
- mentaiko beside kombu, salted dried fish and tsukemono, sold from the same narrow frontages
- Yanagibashi bridge
- the bridge over the Naka River beside which the market stands, at the arcade's far end
- The Nakasu riverbank
- the southern edge of the island district, a few minutes north along the water
How to enjoy it
Shops open around eight in the morning, and fish and roe are laid out at their best early. Buy the roe last so it spends the least time out of the cold, and ask the shop how long it keeps before you choose between mild and hot. Several counters now carry multilingual price cards and photo labels, added for overseas customers, so pointing works.
How to actually get there
- Hakata Station → Watanabe-dori Station (Fukuoka City Subway Nanakuma Line, about 7 min, 210 yen).
- Watanabe-dori Station → Yanagibashi Rengo Ichiba (walk southeast about 6 min).
- Walk the arcade from the street end through to the river end, then cross to the Nakasu riverbank.
- Nanakuma subway line, direct from Hakata Station
- Hakata Station →(Fukuoka City Subway Nanakuma Line, about 7 min)→ Watanabe-dori Station, then a short walk to the arcade. Fare 210 yen. No change of train, and trains run through the day, so no timetable planning is needed.
- Return from Watanabe-dori Station
- Walk back up to Watanabe-dori Station and take the Nanakuma Line back to Hakata, or ride one stop the other way to Tenjin-minami for the Tenjin shopping district. Services run frequently until late evening; check the board if you stay out.
Before you go
- Cash
- Walking the arcade costs nothing — you pay only for what you buy. The subway takes IC cards and cash. Carry small notes for the stalls, which are independent counters rather than a single till.
- Closing days
- The market is closed on Sundays and public holidays, and most shops have shut by early evening, so a weekday morning is the only reliable visit. The lane is roofed but open at both ends, and it is narrow enough that a large bag will get in someone's way.
- Another way
- From Tenjin, ride the Nanakuma Line one stop south from Tenjin-minami to Watanabe-dori, or walk down Watanabe-dori itself. Nishitetsu buses also stop at Yanagibashi, right beside the arcade.
- After you get off
- From Watanabe-dori Station, walk southeast for about 6 minutes toward the Naka River. The arcade entrance opens off the main street, just short of Yanagibashi bridge.