Hiji, Oita

At the fish market end of town, the catch that defines Hiji is a flatfish — *shiroshita karei*, the so-called castle-town flounder, prized for the cold, mineral-rich groundwater that filters through the tidal shallows of Beppu Bay and shapes the flesh. The bay here is unusually shallow and wide, and at low tide the water retreats far enough that the horizon seems to flatten entirely. Hiji-machi grew up along this shore as the castle town of a modest domain, and the stone walls of Hiji Castle still stand above the waterline, the keep long gone but the layered ramparts intact, with a relocated turret that was quietly moved here rather than demolished.

Inland from the shore, the Trappist monastery of Oita operates with the particular self-sufficiency of its order — monks' labor producing goods available to visitors, and the relics of Francis Xavier kept here in a setting that speaks more of Kyushu's Catholic history than most travelers expect. Nearby, the temple Shōyōji holds a cycad of such age and scale that it has been designated a national natural monument. At Ryūsenji, the grave of the composer Taki Rentarō sits quietly among the temple grounds. These are not arranged for tourism; they simply exist in proximity, as things in small towns do.

The local table extends well beyond the flounder. *Chirimen* — tiny dried whitebait from the bay — is processed here in volume. The fields produce white leek, *shio* tomato, and a pale corn variety called Shirayukihime. The Nikaido Shuzo distillery makes barley *shōchū* in town. The Matoyaso, a *kaiseki* restaurant installed within a designated historic villa from 1915, serves in a garden borrowed from the surrounding landscape — a building that has changed use without changing its proportions.