🍱 Houon-ko cuisine (cuisine served at a Buddhist memorial service)

Toyama Prefecture is known as the "Shinshu Kingdom" and is home to a thriving Jodo Shinshu sect. On the anniversary of the death of Shinran Shonin, the founder of Jodo Shinshu, Hoyo and Houon-ko are held to remember his legacy, and 'Houon-ko cuisine' is served on a vermilion-lacquered table. The types and number of dishes vary from region to region, but it is customary to save the best vegetables and wild plants harvested that year for Houon-ko, apart from for everyday use. The Jodo Shinshu sect was introduced to the Hokuriku region during the Kamakura period (1185-1333), and it is said that the sect spread throughout the Etchu region from its base at Zuisenji Temple in present-day Nanto City. For this reason, even today, the area around Nanto City is a particularly faithful area, where the Houon-ko is called "Honko-sama," and a variety of dishes are prepared in such a way that there is no way to fill all the dishes on the table. In the Gokayama area, where traditions are still deeply rooted, the dishes include bracken, royal ferns, and other wild vegetables picked in the spring and dried for preservation, “Gokayama Tofu”, which is firm enough to be tied with a rope without losing its shape, stewed Red Turnips, Red Turnip pickles, and New Rice, among other things.