Blessings of Odawara山海の恩恵 小田原

The vast sea of Sagami Bay to the south, the verdant Hakone mountains to the west—the scenic castle town of Odawara, a city of many attractions nestled between mountain and sea, can be reached in around 35 minutes by Shinkansen from Tokyo Station.

Odawara is perhaps most well known for its fishing port. Sagami Bay is one of Japan’s three deep water bays, with depths of over 1,000 meters just ten kilometers offshore, where the Kuroshio Current brings a rich variety of fish throughout the year. Nutrients from the thickly forested slopes of Hakone and Tanzawa pour into the bay, providing ample food for the fishes, which grow firm, fatty and sweet. The fishing grounds are so close, freshness is a major selling point. Fish caught in large set-nets quickly arrive at the wholesale market and are shipped out within no time. Odawara Fishing Port has long provided dinner and more to the Greater Tokyo area.

Local Pride

Odawara developed as a castle town of the Later Hojo clan in Japan’s Warring States period (1467-1615), and Odawara Castle, white and shining, is the city’s symbol. During the Edo period (1603-1868), the city prospered as a prominent layover on the Tokaido road, where travelers would buy the “Odawara lanterns” that lit up the streets at night, along with dried fish and pickled plums, which keep well, and also fish cakes and other easy-to-carry items.

Walking several minutes straight from Odawara Station brings you to Uokuni, a venerable fishmonger marking its 110th anniversary this year. The shop is a favorite with locals and also draws chefs from famous restaurants and others who drive great distances to buy its fish. The discerning staff carefully select fish every morning at the market, so the shop is filled with a rich variety of delicious sea life. “The best mackerel is slimy with a small head … Shall I cut this into sashimi? … So slice it in thirds?” The quick and clever conversation with customers lends the store a brisk vitality.

Uoichiba Shokudo in Odawara Fishing Port has lines from before it opens. You buy food tickets from a vending machine at the entrance in the local style, which only heightens expectations. There is the special seafood rice bowl with around ten varieties of in-season fish, the local “Odawara rice bowl” comprised solely of seafood from Odawara, and many more popular options for those who relish fresh, fresh flavor.

Tsuyuki Woodcraft near the fishing port was founded in 1926 and specializes in Hakone parquetry, which began being produced in Odawara some 200 years ago. Close proximity to the Hakone Range, home to a large variety of tree species, even for Japan, provides variously colored natural wood that is used to create the intricate parquet patterns. “I want to create things that mesmerize people,” says third-generation proprietor Kiyokatsu Tsuyuki. Drawing on traditional techniques, chic colors and modern designs are given life, creating charming parquetry attuned to contemporary living.

A little ways from Odawara, there is an old house on a hill in the Enoura district. In 1590, during the Siege of Odawara, Toyotomi Hideyoshi had the famous tea master Sen no Rikyu build him a teahouse, Tenshoan, on this very site, where today you will find a bakery, Mugifumi. Inside, the smell of fresh-baked bread entices. “I try to bake simple bread you can eat every day and never tire of,” says owner Junichi Miyashita. Indeed, the bread is baked with great care using local Kanagawa wheat as well as wheat the bakery grows itself. Each bite brings out the grain’s full, rich flavors.

Art and Culture Communication

Enoura is also known for its art. A must-visit is the Odawara Art Foundation’s Enoura Observatory. It sits between Sagami Bay and Hakone’s mountainous outer rim on land that was once a citrus grove. The landscape here is vast. Hiroshi Sugimoto, contemporary artist and the observatory’s founder, seeks to convey the essence of Japanese culture against this impressive backdrop. The buildings recreate the architectural styles and traditional building techniques of various periods of Japan’s history. Just walking among them gives you an all-around view of the country’s architectural history.

If art begins with trying to affirm a place for yourself in the sky, it is only natural that ancient civilizations around the world celebrated and worshipped on the winter solstice. Because it is the shortest day of the year, it symbolizes both the year’s end and its beginning. The Winter Solstice Light-Worship Tunnel allows you to experience vicariously the oldest memory of humankind. The morning sun rising over Sagami Bay enters the long tunnel and illuminates the boulder at its end. Optical Glass Stage looks out toward the sharp horizon. Aligned with the axis of the solstice, the stage is built of hinoki cypress on a kakezukuri framework, which is the technique famously employed at Kiyomizu-dera temple in Kyoto. On the morning of the summer solstice, the sun’s rays penetrate small openings in the glass and the entire stage lights up.

Uchoten (“Listen-to-the-Rain”) tea house perfectly recreates the dimensions of the Taian teahouse, considered the exemplar of the modest wabi-cha ideal of Sen no Rikyu. It also evokes the memory of the Tenshoan tea house, which Rikyu built in Enoura, by reusing galvanized sheet-iron roofing from an orchard shed left on the site. The name is taken from the pitter-patter of raindrops striking the sheet-iron roof.

Japanese archaeological monuments and materials from Sugimoto’s various collections are placed within the premise. This two-tiered pagoda was made in the early years of the Muromachi period (1336-1573). The surface on one side of the stone is severely damaged because it was near ground zero when the nuclear bomb was dropped on Hiroshima on August 6, 1945. Seeing the scars of such terrible destruction is heart-rending.

Walking around Enoura Observatory renews one’s sense for how Japan’s unique culture of honoring the harmony of people and nature has been passed down in an unbroken chain.

Odawara has developed with the course of history through its skillful use of the blessings of both land and sea. A trip here brings you closer to those special things that can only be produced by specific landscapes, from food, to crafts, to art.