Japan’s Largest Imoni Festival Held in Yamagata Amid 34.4 C Heat; Serves up 30,000 Dishes

The Yomiuri Shimbun

14:08 JST, September 18, 2023

YAMAGATA – The largest imoni stew festival in Japan took place along a riverbank in Yamagata City on Sunday. About 30,000 bowls of Yamagata Prefecture’s specialty imoni, a stew made with meat and vegetables including satoimo taro, were served at the event.

Amid temperatures rising to as high as 34.4 C, participants relished their bowls of hot taro stew.

The festival has been an annual event since 1989. Staff added a gargantuan amount of ingredients, including taro, beef and green onions into a large pot measuring 6.5 meters in diameter. Two excavators mixed the ingredients, and after about five hours the stew was ready to be eaten.