Higashikagawa, Kagawa

Gloves are everywhere in Higashikagawa — not displayed, but present in the logic of the town. Workshops and small factories have shaped the local economy here for generations, and the city still produces the vast majority of Japan's domestic glove supply. Walking through the quieter streets, you sense an industry that hums rather than announces itself, tucked into low buildings between the Setouchi shoreline and the Sanuki mountains.

The old district of Hiketa holds a different kind of attention. The streetscape there preserves merchant architecture from the Edo and Meiji periods — Sanshū Izutsuya, the historic compound, and Kamebishi-ya, a long-established producer, anchor a townscape that hasn't been staged for tourism so much as simply not erased. In early spring, the Hiketa Hinamatsuri brings the interior spaces of these old buildings into public view, paper dolls arranged in rooms that otherwise stay closed. Offshore, the waters around Ando-ike carry their own history: yellowtail farming began here in 1928, making this coast the acknowledged origin of a practice now common across Japan.

At Shirotori Jinja, the white sand and pines have their own designation, and the shrine sits within the fabric of a neighborhood rather than apart from it. Further inland, Yodaji temple serves as the general inner sanctuary of the Shikoku pilgrimage circuit, its treasure hall open to those who arrive without particular ceremony. The coastline itself, facing Harima-nada, falls within the Setonaikai National Park — and at Kaura-goe, a lamprophyre dike cuts through pale granite in a formation designated as a natural monument, the dark rock intruding cleanly into the white.