Hokkaido Genghis Khan Festival
Around town 
アロウンドタウン
アロウンドタウンFrom today the annual “Hokkaido Genghis Khan Festival” begins!
Now by Genghis Khan, we don’t mean the mighty great khan who started the Mongol invasions and took over most or Eurasia. No, in Hokkaido one of there famous foods goes by the name “ジンギスカン JINGUSUKAN”, or the English “Genghis Khan”.
*Presumably the dish is rumored to be so named because in prewar Japan, lamb was widely thought to be the meat of choice among Mongolian soldiers, and the dome-shaped skillet is meant to represent the soldiers’ helmets that they purportedly used to cook their food.
In 1918, according to the plan by the Japanese government to increase the flock to one million sheep, five sheep farms were established in Japan. However, all of them were demolished except in Hokkaido (Takikawa and Tsukisamu). [1] Because of this, Hokkaido’s residents first began eating the meat from sheep that they sheared for their wool.
The festival begins from today until Sunday, 11am-9pm.
At Sapporo’s TV tower.
Special thanks to Minoru Suda for the photos and event details.
日本語
*Source
