A city that retains the impressive and atmospheric townscape of the Edo Period and the Meiji Era (17th–19th century).

In Handa City, Aichi Prefecture, the brewing of sake, vinegar and other fermented food stock is a thriving industry, and the blackboard-enclosed storehouses that represent this sector of the food market are still active along the Handa Canal.
The canal, opened in the Edo Period, carried these specialties, such as sake, vinegar, and cotton from the Chita Peninsula, to Edo (current Tokyo) and Kamigata (nowadays Kyoto and Osaka). Wealthy brewery warehouses and merchant mansions from the early Meiji Era line the canal, preserving a distinctive image of those days.