Merchants first began gathering in the Kappabashi area around 1912, selling old tools and a wide range of implements and hardware. Today, one can find almost every kind of restaurant and kitchen equipment imaginable. This includes bakery equipment, Japanese, Western, and Chinese tableware, lacquerware, restaurant equipment, packaging, containers, decorative goods, ‘fake’ food samples, chefs’ coats, signs, noren (shop curtains), bamboo wares, baking ingredients, food and beverage ingredients, confectionery wholesalers, Japanese and Western furniture, kitchen equipment and much more. At 800 meters (nearly a half-mile) in length, and with over 170 shops, this is Japan’s largest shopping street devoted to kitchen implements.
