My friend Kanako is an ambitious home chef, the kind of person who frequently cooks using clay pots heated over charcoal embers — she would roast a whole pig in a pit if she had the space. On a recent evening, she prepared an astounding feast that included delicacies such as boar, fresh oysters and sweet prawns shipped directly from Hiroshima Prefecture, and a gorgeously marbled block of tankaku-wagyu (short-horned beef) from Iwate Prefecture. As we settled around her dining room table, our hostess brought out each of the precious ingredients, pausing for a moment before introducing the star of the show: a slab of garnet-hued bear meat from Toyama Prefecture.