Morning market in Wajima

Morning market in Wajima

[ Mar.2016 ] Next morning, we went to the famous morning market in Wajima on the Noto Peninsula in Japan.

There were many stalls of women, mainly selling seafood in one shopping street.

They called out “Buy some!” to us, but because we were travelling, we could not buy any fresh food.

Instead, we bought some lacquer ware and lacquer accessories in the shops surrounding the market, which were active during the morning market, too.

This region is historically famous for their lacquer craft.

Apparently this morning market is one of the three biggest ones in Japan and it started in Heian Period (794 – 1192) when people from fishing villages and farming villages gathered to exchange their products on the days of festivals.

In the Meiji Period (1868 – 1912) they started having the market everyday, though now it is closed on the 2nd and 4th Wednesday and the first three days in the New Year.

The market association has about 300 members and usually 100 to 250 stalls are out in the street.

The tradition is that they decide the every price by negotiating.

The women at the stalls dressed in the way you would never see in the city, which was rather pretty.

And they reminded me of the women in the countryside in Turkey.