Miyagawa Morning Market (Takayama, Gifu, Japan)

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At a Glance

Miyagawa Morning Market is a street market held along the Miyagawa River in Shimosannomachi, Takayama, in Gifu Prefecture. It is run by a local cooperative and counts as one of Japan's three great morning markets, alongside Wajima in Ishikawa and Katsuura in Chiba. The street is also called Asaichi-dori, the morning market street.

Stalls sell Takayama specialities such as pickles, including Hida red turnip, along with fresh vegetables, fruit, rice cakes, hoba miso and handmade crafts like sarubobo dolls and Ichii wood carvings. Local residents shop here as well as visitors. The market in its present form began on 1 May 1953, after an earlier market was ordered to move, but morning markets in Takayama go back to the Edo period near Takayama Betsuin. Near the end of the year, stalls sell New Year items such as flower rice cakes and kadomatsu pine decorations.