Japan Navigator

Akita is lies in the northwestern corner of the main island of Honshu and is a beautiful prefecture of rugged mountains, beech forests and deep lakes. As cold winds blow in from Siberia over the Japan Sea, the severe winters bring heavy snowfall. Tazawako is Japan’s deepest lake and Mt Chokai, in the south of the prefecture, has been nicknamed “Dewa Fuji” for its graceful cone. Kakunodate is a historical town with 200-year old samurai houses. In winter, people huddle around the irori, the square open hearth where they enjoy the local dish of kiritanpo, skewers with pounded rice grilled over a charcoal fire and then added to a hotpot stew of vegetables, mushrooms and chicken.

[Street with samurai houses in Kakunodate, Akita. Photo Ad Blankestijn]

Akita is also a true sake land: it is the fourth producer of sake in Japan and advertises itself with the slogan “Kingdom of Beautiful Sake.” Akita has plenty of good rice, crystal-clear spring water and the cold winters help brewers keep the fermentation under control. But perhaps because of its distance from urban centers, it was only in the Taisho-period, in the 2nd and 3rd decades of the 20th c. that brewing in Akita took off, thanks to modern transport. Now there are 50 breweries. Breweries here started early on with ginjo production. There is a small but fine group of local toji, the Sannai toji.

The prefecture is also very active. In 1990, it has developed its own strain of yeast, AK-1 (now also Association Yeast No. 15), which produces very fragrant sake but also calls for fermenting at low temperatures for a long time. A large harvest of medals at the National Competition for New Sake the next year was the result. Akita Prefecture is also one of only two prefectures in Japan that have their own Institute for Brewing Technology. And although Akita still grows a lot of Miyama Nishiki, it has also developed its own types of special sake rice such as Gin no Sei. The Akita Chapter of the Sake Brewers Association has a large English section on its website, where individual breweries are introduced – something we would like to warmly recommend to other prefectures as well! And finally Akita’s brewers are actively looking for customers abroad, by sending missions to the U.S. and E.U. via the Akita Sake Promotion and Export Council (ASPEC).

[Samurai house in Kakunodate, Akita. Photo Ad Blankestijn]

Akita’s sake is rich but delicate, with a detailed construction. It is also somewhat on the sweet side, due to the mostly soft quality of the water in the prefecture. Akita people are also known as the greatest sake drinkers in Japan (the prefecture has the highest consumption rate in the country), so 90% of Akita’s sake is enjoyed by Akita itself.

Here are some well-known breweries:

Ama no To (”Heaven’s Door” – from an old song that reads “Quietly open the door to heaven, and let the sunlight shine upon the green leaves of cedar trees in the holy mountain”; Asamai Shuzo in Yokote City).
Founded in 1917. Only uses local rice (no Yamada Nishiki!) and has formed a rice study group with its farmers. Has a famous brew master, Moriya Koichi. Delicate and well-balanced sake. Has won five consecutive gold medals in the National Sake tasting competition using Akita rice and AK-1 yeast.

Aramasa (”New administration” – a name used by the Meiji government; Aramasa Shuzo in Akita City).
Good example of the distinctive style of Akita sake. Founded in 1852. Has won many awards in tasting competitions over the decades. Was the developer of what is now Association Yeast No. 6.

Dewatsuru (”Crane of Dewa”; Akita Seishu in Daisen City).
Located on the Senboku Plain. Mellow and smooth flavor. Founded in 1865. The name goes back to the words of a former brewmaster who said: “May this sake that I brew with all my spirit be like a crane in its caliber and mellowness.”

Hideyoshi (”Hideyoshi” is the name of the famous unifier of japan and also a play on the words “excellent and good”; Gomei-gaisha Suzuki Shuzoten in Daisen City).
Founded in 1689 by a brewer who moved here from Ise. The sake was drunk by the local feudal clan, the Satake, who gave it the name “Hideyoshi” after the brewery won a tasting competition in 1849.

Hiraizumi (”Flying good spring”; Hiraizumi Honpu in Nikaho City).
In contrast to the relative youth of most breweries in Akita, Hiraizumi’s history goes back to the 15th c. (1487 to be exact), making it the 3rd longest history of any brewer in Japan. The brewery was set up bij a wholesaler from southern Osaka, from an area called “Izumi,” and it combined its original wholesaler’s name of “Izumiya” with the name of its Akita location, Hirasawa (”Hirasawa Izumi no Sake” which became “Hiraizumi”). In the early Meiji period, sake brewing became the main business. Different from other Akita sake is the fact that Hiraizumi brews with very hard water, resulting in a dense sake high in acidity. It also uses the yamahai method.
The current buildings date from 1883.

Kariho (”Cut rice stalks”; Kariho Shuzo in Daisen City).
Formed in 1913 as a sister company to Dewatsuru. Brews a gentle and charmingly light sake. Has won many awards in tasting competitions over the years. The name of the brewery cites a famous poem by Emperor Tenchi, part of “One Hundred Poems by One Hundred Poets:” “Because of the coarseness of the rush mat in this temporary hut in the rice paddy in autumn, my cuffs are becoming wet by the dew on the cut rice stalks.”

Mansaku no Hana (”Flower of Mansaku”, the first tree to bloom in spring; Hinomaru Shuzo in Yokote City).
Established in 1689. The Hinomaru Brewery takes its name from the family crest of the ruling Satake clan: a folding fan with a hinomaru (sun) design. Uses under-well water from Mt Kurikoma. Concentrates on ginjo with a sophisticated flavor. Brews with the kimoto-method. One of the smallest breweries in Akita. Most of the sake is aged in the bottle.

Taiheizan (”Taiheizan” is the name of a sacred mountain east of Akita City; Kodama Jozo in Katagami City).
Started as a manufacturer of miso in 1879. Sake brewing began in 1913 and in 1934 the company received top honors in the national sake tasting competition. That year it also became the first company to sell non-pasteurized sake. Uses abundant quantities of clean well water and superior quality rice. Known for its use of the traditional kimoto-method.

Takashimizu (”Pure water from on High” – a place on a hill where the Japanese court many centuries ago established a local seat of government; Akita Shurui Seizo in Akita City).
Founded through the merger of 12 small breweries just after WWII. A brewing powerhouse that has one of the highest production volumes in eastern Japan. Understandably, much of that is ordinary “table sake,” but the brand also has a few good premium sakes. It takes its water from a famous well that was used by the reigning feudal clan.

Tenju (”Heavenly Long Life”; Tenju Shuzo in Yurihonjo City).
Founded 130 years ago (1874), this brewery uses melted water from Mt. Chokai. Has set up the Tenju Sake Rice Research Association for studying the organic cultivation of rice. A delicate, light sake with a mellow fragrance and rich flavor.

Yuki no Bousha (”Thatched-roof house in the snow”; Saiya Shuzoten in Yurihonjo City).
Founded in 1902. Brews with water that has been filtered down through Mt Shinzan, at the foot of Mt Chokai. The water is semi-soft. The brewery is shaded by a huge keyaki-tree, providing a stable temperature inside the kura. This brewery uses the kimoto-method. Only brews in small batches as it believes large tanks lead to a bland taste. Uses Yamada Nishiki and Akita Sake Komachi rice, and polishes on average to 58%. In 2001, it became the first sake brewery in Japan to be certified as an organic sake brewer. Uses its own yeast. Housed in historical buildings.

Information from: National Tax Office and Japan Sake Breweries Association, as well as the Akita Sake Breweries Map and the JAL sake site, Sake, the Liquid Essence of Japan.
Regional profile gleaned from: Nihonshu no Tekisuto (2): Sanchi no Tokucho to Tsukuritetachi by renowned sake journalist Matsuzaki Haruo (Doyukan, 2005). Some information about individual breweries based on Matsuzaki Haruo, Tastes of 1635 Shinpan Nihonshu Gaidobukku (Shibata Shoten 2003), as well as The Sake Companion by John Gaunter (Running Press) and The Insider’s Guide to Sake by Philip Harper (Kodansha International).

Tsukemono, Japanese pickles, are a constant part of every Japanese meal that contains rice – they are usually combined into a set with the rice and miso soup (ichiju issai, “one soup and one vegetable”). Pickling was an important way of preserving vegetables and get the necessary vitamins also in winter. In the past, Japanese families did their own pickling, as some farmers still do. There are many ways of making tsukemono, but as none of these involves the use of distilled vinegar or acetic acid, we should in fact call them “preserved vegetables”, rather than pickles in the Western sense. Tsukemono are also eaten with chazuke (”green tea over rice”), or just with a cup of green tea after the meal. Last but not least, they also make an excellent companion to sake.

On menus, such as of the kaiseki cuisine, tsukemono are called “(o-)shinko.”

Here are the major types of pickling:

• With salt (shiozuke). The easiest and most popular method. Sliced vegetables are salted and put under a weight in the pickling press (tsukemonoki). The salt is removed by washing before serving. Very light pickles can be made by just keeping them in the press for one night (ichiyazuke). [This is also called "asazuke", although asazuke are not only made with salt, but also with vinegar or rice bran. The original flavor is the vegetable is preserved in this way].
  Best example: umeboshi, Japanese apricots.
  
  [Photo by Ad Blankestijn]
• With soy sauce (shoyuzuke). Mirin is usually added to the soy sauce.
  Best example: Fukujinzuke, a pickle of seven kinds of vegetables (as there are “Seven Deites of Good Fortune,” fukujin), the fixed companion of curry dishes. Has a crunchy texture. Vegetables used are daikon, eggplant, cucumber, etc.
• With miso (misozuke). The miso is usually mixed with sake. This method is used for pickling whole vegetables, such as pumpkin.
  
  [Photo from Flickr by framboise]
• With vinegar (suzuke). Japanese vinegar is low in acidity, so like the other types, this is also more a preserved vegetable than a real pickle.
  Best examples: rakkyo, pickled scallions or gari, the pickled slices of ginger eaten to refresh the mouth between dishes of sushi.
• With rice bran (nukazuke). Used with salt and chilies. The vegetables are buried in a bed of the rice bran (nukadoko) for a period of several months.
  Best example: takuan, pickled daikon radish, colored yellow by adding turmeric (ukon). Named after a famous priest who purportedly invented this type of pickle.
  
  [Photo from Flickr by shiokuma]
• With sake lees (kasuzuke). Sake lees are mixed with shochu, sugar and salt. This method of pickling takes a very long time.
  Best example: narazuke, the representative pickle of Nara City, mostly made with pickling melon (shirouri).
  
  [Photo from Flickr by ancorena]
• With koji (kojizuke). Koji is a mold that is cultivated on rice and that is responsible for the sugarification of the starch in the rice as well as the production of other enzymes. A pickling method for winter.
  Best example: bettarazuke, using daikon. Has a sweet flavor and alcoholic aroma. The name derives from the “stickiness” of this type of pickle.
  
  「Photo from Wikipedia]
• With Japanese mustard (karashizuke). A pickling bed is made of mustard mixed with the sakekasu (lees) we already saw above.
  Best example: karashi-nasu, using eggplant.

Not all tsukemono fit neatly into these categories. The famous senmaizuke consists of slices of turnip (kabu) pickled with salt plus konbu, mirin and chili pepper so that a distinctive umami flavor develops.

Tsukemono can be bought in supermarkets and other food stores, but there are also specialist shops, often set up by the makers. Kyoto and Nara have many such tsukemono shops and tsukemono from these cities form a popular omiyage (present brought home by travelers).

Suntory’s Yamazaki Distillery is the oldest whisky plant in Japan. It was set up in 1923 by Torii Shinjiro, the founder of Suntory which until then had been only manufacturing the extremely sweet Akadama port wine. While Akadama for obvious reasons never has won any hearts outside of Japan, Suntory’s malt whisky has been another story – it has gathered many international prizes.

[The Suntory Yamazaki Distillery. From my photostream on Flickr]

Mr Torii selected a great place for his distillery: a bamboo grove at the foot of Mt Tennozan, in green Yamazaki between Osaka and Kyoto. It is an area where three rivers, the Katsura, Uji and Kizu rivers, merge, creating mists and fog conducive to good whisky (it keeps the wooden casks used for aging wet so that they don’t loose moisture). On top of that, it has excellent water that wells up from undergound – so good and pure that famous Tea Master Sen Rikyu built his Taian teahouse in this area. And, last but not least, the location is also conveniently close to the large population centers of Kyoto, Osaka and Kobe.

[The large mash tuns. From my photostream on Flickr]

Whisky is made by first germinating barley, a process which is called malting. The malt is dried in kilns with a little peat. Next, it is ground and put into a mashtun with warm water (the flavor and quality of the water is very important here!). The enzymes which are the result of the malting change the starch into sugar. When the saccharification is finished, the mash is filtered to obtain a clear wort. That is next transferred to wooden vats called washbacks for the fermentation process. Yeast is added to that purpose. The wooden washbacks are more difficult to operate (temperature control) than stainless steel vats, but they give the whisky a richer flavor.

[Wooden washback. From my photostream on Flickr]

Next, direct-fired pot stills are used to distill the fermented liquid and obtain a higher alcohol percentage. Distillation is conducted twice. The right timing of this proces by the stillman, the artisan in charge of distillation, is central to obtaining a well-balanced flavor.

The distillery operates many different stills (”straight-head stills, bulge stills and lantern-head stills”), crouching in a huge hall like so many primeval monsters, to get various types of whisky for blending. The top blended whisky by Suntory is Hibiki.

[Array of pot stills. From my photostream on Flickr]

The final stage of whisky production is the all-important aging in oak casks. The oak imparts color and flavor to the whisky. Aging takes place in a large storehouse where a huge variety of oak casks has been lined up, with such interesting names as “hogsheads,” “puncheons” and “sherry butts,” besides normal barrels.

The Yamazaki Distillery also became the location where Japan’s first single malt whisky was distilled, Yamazaki 12, which came to market in 1984. Today Suntory offers single malts of 10, 12, 18 and 25 years old.

[Oak casks for aging the whisky. From my photostream on Flickr]

The Suntory Yamazaki Distillery is open to the public. From 10:00 to 15:00 guided tours are held which pass through the factory (the three stages of malting/mashing/fermentation, the hall with the huge pot stills, and the large storehouse with the casks for aging), after which a tasting is offered. The whole proces takes about one hour. Afterwards visitors can freely explore the Yamazaki Whisky Museum and the Distillery Shop. The tasting consists of Yamazaki Single Malt which has a clear and crisp flavor plus the more smoky Hakushu which is made at the foot of Mt Komagatake in Yamanashi Prefecture.

[Casks. From my photostream on Flickr]

The guided tour must be booked in advance by calling (0)75-962-1423. The tour is in Japanese, but English audio guides are available. There is also an English pamphlet. The tour and tasting are free. The distillery is only a 10 min walk from Yamazaki Station on the JR line between Osaka and Kyoto (or Oyamazaki Station on the Hankyu Line).

[Suntory's guide in action. From my photostream on Flickr]

See Nonjatta for another take on the Yamazaki Distillery and copious information about Japanese whisky, including its history.

The egg masses of fish or their ripe internal ovaries are called roe (gyoran). Both raw and cooked, roe is a popular food in Japan. We find the following types:

• Ikura or salmon roe. The term is a loan word from the Russian ikra, caviar. Although not as precious as its Russian namesake, the bead-like ikura-spheres have a beautiful orange color and taste delidiously. Ikura is popular sushi topping and is also used in chirashi-zushi and onigiri.

  
  [Photo from the photostream on Flickr of Loremipsum]
  

• Sujiko or “salmon roe in one piece”: sujiko is still inside its sack when it is prepared. It is darker in color than ikura.
• Kazunoko or herring roe, usually salted. Kazunoko is yellow and has a firm, rubbery texture. The roe is flavored with soy sauce before eating. Besides being a topping for sushi, kazunoko also is a popular item in O-sechi Ryori, the special New Year’s meal.

  
  [Photo from the photostream on Flickr of SauceSupreme]

• Mentaiko or Alaska pollack roe, spiced with powdered chili pepper and surrounded by a thin, elastic membrane. A specialty of Hakata (Kyushu). Mentaiko is usually pink to dark red. Tarako (cod’s roe) is another way tio refer to mentaiko.
  
  [Photo from the photostream on Flickr of ash-man]
• Uni, the orange or pale yellow ovaries of the sea urchin, a great delicacy. It is soft and melts on the tongue. It is a popular topping of sushi, and is used in a variety of other ways in the Japanese kitchen.
  
  [Photo from the photostream on Flickr of superfantastico]
• Karasumi or dried, salted mullet roe (botargo). Eaten as is such in thin slices.
  
  [Photo from the photostream on Flickr of panduh]

To complete the (Edo-period) list of the “Three Great Delicacies (chinmi)”, to uni and kazunoko should be added konowata, although this is not a roe. Konowata are the fermented intestines of the sea slug (namako). All three delicacies are served as food with sake.

[Photo from the photostream on Flickr of rhosoi]

When searching the web, there seems to be a lot of confusion what the sweet liquid flavoring called mirin in fact is.

It is, for example. often called “sweet cooking sake”, but that is wrong. Mirin does not contain any sake and has not been fermented either.

Mirin is produced by mixing steamed glutinous rice (the type used for mochi rice cakes) on which the koji mold has been cultivated, with shochu (Japanese distilled liquor). Instead of shochu it is also possible to use brewer’s alcohol (ethanol). The koji transforms the starch in the rice into glucose and over a period of 40 to 60 days a delicious sweetness develops. When the mirin is ready, it contains 13.5 to 14.5% alcohol and 40 to 50% sugar.

In other words, in the traditional kitchen, mirin is used as the standard sweetener. The alcohol will evaporate during cooking.

[Photo from the photostream on Flickr of aidanbrooks]

There are several cheap “chemical” replacements on the market, so to make clear we have to do with real mirin, it is called “hon-mirin.” You can also recognize it by the alcohol percentage that is always on the bottle, and the light brown color, as a thin, golden syrup. The chemical replacements are lighter colored and contain less than 1% alcohol.

Mirin possesses a refined sweet taste and a delicious aroma. With dashi, soy sauce, vinegar and miso, it is one of the most important traditional flavorings in the Japanese kitchen.

Mirin is also used as ingredient for all kinds of dip sauces for noodles, for sweetening simmered dishes, for marinades, and the sauces for kabayaki and teriyaki, as well as for glazing grilled foods. Mirin contains lots of amino acids and therefore “umami.” Mirin also helps to mask the strong aromas of meat or fish.

In the past, mirin was sometimes also consumed as an alcoholic drink, by adding more shochu. It is still used as ingredient in otoso, the New Year’s sake that has been spiced up with a herb mixture.

This book is like the cup of instant noodles on its front cover: light, easy to digest, but a bit lacking in nourishment. Probably I felt so because I came to it with the wrong expectation. Interested in books about Japanese food, I was hoping to learn more about instant ramen and its inventor, Momofuku Ando, and the company he founded, but instead I got a personal record about the author, Andy Raskin (who, by the way, is fascinated by Japanese culture and fluent in the language). Plagued by an all too hectic love life, as a therapy Raskin is advised to start writing imaginary confessional letters to a sort of God figure – and he selects Mr Ando, the inventor of Cup Noodles, as his unseen spiritual guide.

[From my photostream on Flickr]

There are some engaging anecdotes in the book, such as how Raskin travels to Osaka to interview the then 94-year old Mr Ando without an appointment (and without wearing a suit and tie or even bringing namecards) and is rebuffed by Nissin’s public relations department. They politely show him the Instant Ramen Museum in Ikeda, as Japanese are good in smothering bothersome foreigners in kindness without giving them what they want. Other stories demonstrate Raskin’s enormous love for ramen – he travels all the way from Osaka to Fukuoka, 622 kilometers by Shinkansen, just to slurp a bowl of Hakata Ramen in one of the famous food stalls in Nakasu. It is also nice to hear that Raskin is fond of food manga as Shota’s Sushi, Natsuko’s Sake, Oishinbo and of course Ramen Discovery Legend. In the grand finale of the book Raskin gatecrashes the megalomaniac space-themed funeral of Mr Ando. And he manages to fix his life.

[From my photostream on Flickr]

For a personal record that is told with humor, this is an original set-up, but I just missed something deeper about ramen and Japanese food. New readers should adjust their expectations accordingly.

I find it also difficult to see how Mr Ando can be considered as a spiritual guide. Raskin quotes from Ando’s essays and collected sayings, but can anything be more banal than “Peace follows from a full stomach?” Although another reviewer calls these pronouncements “Zenlike nuggets”, to consider this as “Zen” is blasphemy. Mr Ando was an entrepreneur and not a philosopher.

[From my photostream on Flickr]

Raskin also quotes lavishly from Ando’s memoirs, and discovers that Ando was not honest in telling his own life story. In other words, a good critical (=independent) biography of Momofuku Ando is what we need. Ando seems to have been able to turn everything he touched into a business. How did he do that? What kind a man was he? What did his Chinese origins mean for his invention of Cup Noodles? These questions are still waiting for an answer.

In the meantime, have a nice bowl of ramen!

The Ramen King and I, How the Inventor of Instant Noodles Fixed My Love Life by Andy Raskin (Gotham Books)

“Tofu (”bean curd”) is one of the most protean of all foods,” says Donald Richie (in A Taste of Japan). You can do more things with it than with any other food and its delicate taste serves as a base for thousands of other flavors. Soy protein is of the highest quality, equal to that of meat and dairy products, but without the cholesterol and saturated fat.

On top of that, it is the perfect health food. It is incredibly easy for the body to metabolize this light food. Soy isoflavones possess a myriad of biological properties that can benefit the body. It helps against fatigue and a weak stomach and encourages a clear skin and healthy complexion. People in east Asia believe it also helps them live longer lives. It is not only nutritious (like the soy beans from which it is made), it is also cheap. Tofu is low in calories and rich in protein, calcium, iron and phosphorus.

Tofu originated in China and came to Japan in the 8th century – perhaps brought back by priests for whom it formed a valuable protein-rich addition to the vegetarian diet. There is a record that in 1183 it was offered to the Kasuga Shrine in Nara.

Tofu is made in the following way:

• Soak soybeans overnight in water
• Grind them, add water and then boil the mixture (this mixture is called go, soybean puree)
• Strain it to remove the bean pulp (called okara) – what is left is soy milk
• Add a coagulating agent, bittern (made from crude salt, contains both magnesium chloride and calcium chloride) or calcium sulfate. This will transform the soymilk into curds and whey. The curds are finally poured into a mold and left to settle.

Depending on the finishing process there are three types of tofu:

1. Momen(-goshi). “Cotton tofu.” The soy milk curd is put into a mold lined with cotton cloth. The mold has holes in the sides and bottom so that the liquid can be pressed out. This leave a firm block of tofu into which the cotton weave has been impressed. This firm type of tofu is used in yudofu and hotpots. Also eaten by itself.
2. Kinu(-goshi). “Silk tofu.” The name is given not because a silk cloth is used instead of a cotton one, but because this type of tofu looks “silky smooth.”  It is in fact not drained, so that a larger amount of coagulant remains; it is very soft and breaks easily. Used in soups as miso-shiru.
3. Yakidofu. Lightly broiled tofu. There is a light brown mottling on the skin. It is firmer than momen and kinu tofu and most often used in hotpots – it is especially popular in sukiyaki.

All three types of tofu are fresh and must be kept under water (also the packs you buy in the supermarket contain water!) and refrigerated, otherwise it will not keep for more than a day. Under water and refrigerated, it should be used within 5 to 7 days of manufacturing.

When tofu is deep-fried in oil, another variety is created, which comes in four forms (this type is of course never kept under water, but just in the refrigerator; will keep fresh there for one week):

1. Atsu-age. Thick-sliced (2.5 cm) tofu broiled briefly in hot oil. The inside remains soft and white, while the outside is golden brown. Another name for this type of tofu is nama-age. Difference with aburage: aburage is thinner and fried through. Can be eaten as such in izakaya etc. with flavoring of soy sauce and ginger, used in oden, miso soup, etc. Pour hot water over the cake and lightly press in paper towels before using it to remove excess oil.
   
2. Aburage. Deep-fried, thinly sliced tofu. An ingredient of udon dishes called kitsune (fox) udon, because legend tells that foxes are fond of deep fried tofu!  In small stripes, an ingredient of miso soup, and soups of mizuna, komatsuna etc. Also an ingredient in stir fries. Can also be sliced open and used as a wrapper (”tofu pouch”) and filled with vinegared rice to make inarizushi – inari is a name for the fox deity. Also here, remove excess oil before using it.
3. Agedashi-dofu. Deep-fried tofu breaded with potato starch. Eaten with a sauce of soy sauce, sake, dashi, sugar and salt en dressed with chopped green onions, grated daikon radish and red pepper.
4. Ganmodoki or “mixed tofu balls.” Tofu is mixed with crushed yam and chopped vegetables as carrot, burdock, shiitake mushrooms, as well as sesame seed. This mixture is kneaded into 4-cm balls and deep-fried. Used in oden and simmered dishes. “Ganmodoki” means “like a wild goose,” the name was presumably given by a Buddhist priest who ate this instead of the real goose.

Two more varieties of tofu are:

1. Flavored tofu includes the pale golden “egg tofu” (tamago tofu),  tofu flavored with green tea, pumpkin or sesame seed (gomadofu).
2. Koya-dofu. Freeze-dried tofu, originating with the monks of Mt Koya. They reputedly discovered the process accidentally by leaving tofu outside on a winter night. Grayish. Soak in water to reconstitute it before eating. Solves the problem that tofu can’t be kept for long.

Already during the production process of tofu, various other foodstuffs come into being:

• Okara or soy pulp. A white pulp left over when soy milk is extracted from ground soaked soybeans. It looks a bit like sawdust. Although tasteless, okara contains fiber, protein, iron, calcium and riboflavin and is very nutritious. It is in the first place used as livestock feed, but also finds many applications in the Japanese kitchen. Recently, it has been discovered by vegetarians and is for example used as ingredient for vegetarian burgers, also in the West. Okara is also called poetically “unohana,” “deutzia flowers.” As Okara – like tofu – can’t be kept long, it is often sold in dried form.
• Tonyu or soy milk is a healthy replacement for cow milk. There is also soy milk based ice cream and soy yogurt.
• Yuba or soy milk skin, a delicacy of Kyoto. Yuba forms on the surface when soy milk is heated. Can be eaten fresh or added to soups. Important ingredient in shojin-ryori (Buddhist vegetarian cuisine).

Enjoy tofu in the following ways:

• As-it-is: Hiyayakko or chilled tofu. Cold blocks of “cotton tofu” with soy sauce, grated ginger and finely sliced spring onions. Typical izakaya food. Summer dish.
• As-it-is: Yudofu or “Tofu in warm water.” Blocks of “cotton tofu” are put in a pot with water and kombu right on the table. After gently warming (never boiling!) the tofu is dipped in a sauce of soy, spring onions, grated ginger and bonito shavings before eating. Typical Kyoto dish. When cooking at home, you can vary it by adding shungiku, shiitake, Chinese cabbage and enokidake to the broth.
• As-it-is: Shira-ae or vegetables dressed with tofu. Lit. “Salad with white dressing.” Carrot, burdock root, green beans etc. are cooked, cooled off and then mixed with a dressing made from drained tofu and dashi, salt, sugar and soy sauce.
• Grilled: Dengaku. Lightly grilled tofu flavored with various types of miso mixed with sugar and sake.
• Sauteed: Iridofu. Tofu sauteed with shiitake mushrooms, carrots and snow peas and seasoned with sake, soy sauce, sugar and egg. Even without the addition of egg, this tofu dish reminds one of scrambled eggs!
• Japanese-Chinese: Mabo tofu. Originally from Sichuan, but domesticated in the Japanese Chuka kitchen. Small squares of tofu in a soupy mixture containing ground pork, seasoned with leeks, ginger, sesame seed oil and soy sauce. Eaten over rice on a plate. Can be spicy, although less so in Japan than in Sichuan!

Traditionally, Kyoto is famous for its tofu, thanks to its excellent water and emphasis on vegetarian cuisine.

The Japan Times writes about a new trend in the sake world, organic sake.

Sake has been reinventing itself in many ways these last years so there is a lot of excellent sake on the market.

The main thing to watch out for when buying sake is that you don’t buy the ordinary sake (“futsushu”) with added alcohol – the stuff sold in supermarkets in carton packs. Do yourself the favor of buying a premium sake, preferably a “Junmai” which contains no added alcohol and is 100% natural. So always look at the list of ingredients. If it only says “rice, koji” it is a premium sake. When it also lists “brewer’s alcohol” see if there is a “rice polishing ratio” on the bottle. If that is 70% or lower it is still a premium sake, but with just a bit of extra alcohol to make the taste lighter. If there is no rice polishing ratio, it is bulk sake with lots of added alcohol to increase volume. If it also lists “sugar” as ingredient, please forget about it. There is enough better stuff, although even the cheapest sake from Japan never contains chemicals or preservatives – and of course there are no sulfites either.

As organic is expensive, it usually will be a premium sake and not the bulk type. But just as with organic wine, only small quantities are being brewed so far.

Some other interesting types of sake are: “Ginjo” or “Daiginjo,” the sake with the lowest rice polishing ratio making it very aromatic and fruity (”low” means that most of the rice has been polished away and only pure starch is left for brewing); “Genshu,” the undiluted, unfiltered and often also unpasteurized sake – just as it comes out of the press in the brewery, with a higher alcohol content than usual; this is excellent on the rocks and with its firework of tastes it makes a great summer drink; “Koshu,” sake that has been ripened for many years and which tastes (and looks) like brandy, a good late evening drink; “Kijoshu,” the sweet after-dinner sake that fits marvelously with a chocolate dessert; “Nigori,” the somewhat sweetish sake that still has some rice particles left after only a rough pressing, so it looks like milk – popular in the U.S.; and “Kimoto” or “Yamahai” sake, which thanks to the use of a traditional and time-consuming way of cultivating the yeast has a very full body.

Enjoy!

“Japanese wine” is not an expression to bring joy to faces and make mouths water. I still remember the not-even-so-cheap head-ache stuff I drank when I first came to Japan, more than 25 years ago, and although things have improved a lot, Japan will never be a great wine country. Not because the Japanese can’t make wine – on the contrary, there are many young wine makers who have studied abroad and who are enthusiastically producing some good stuff at small wineries – but the problems are the following:

1. Climatic conditions for the growing of grapes are not good (too humid).
2. There are no vinefera vines native to Japan, although several as the Koshu have been brought here many centuries ago and evolved in a unique way. But the Koshu is a typical table grape, wine made with it lacks body.
3. Grape-growers (who are separate from the wineries) concentrate on table grapes as these command a far higher price than the variety used in winemaking.
4. There is the habit among the larger producers to blend Japanese wines with foreign ones – this does not have to be indicated on the label.

[Daizenji temple, Katsunuma, Yamanashi. Photo Ad Blankestijn]

Wine cultivation in Japan is legendarily linked with Daizenji Temple in Katsunuma, the main grape and wine producing area of the country in Yamanashi Prefecture. The Healing Buddha installed in the temple hall is believed to have brought grapes with medical properties to Katsunuma. And it were the grapes the ancient Japanese were interested in, rather than wine – wine consumption is not documented until the arrival of the Portuguese missionaries in the 16th c.

That wine was called “Tinta-shu,” after the Portuguese word for red, tinto, and it was presented to Japan’s feudal lords, although presumably the missionaries drank most of it themselves. When Japan secluded itself from the world a few decades later, wine was forgotten (if it had made a dent at all) and we have to wait until 1875 before the first attempts at commercial wine making were undertaken on Japanese soil. These were not very successful; the taste was too sour and tannic to suit the Japanese. But the experiment led to the import of European vinifera and American vines as the basis for a new industry.

The first popular wine was manufactured by Suntory in 1907. Called “Akadama Port,” it was not really a wine, but rather a cocktail of grape juice, alcohol, flavorings and sugar. It was very sweet, but suited the Japanese taste of that time. Also the sake drunk in the Meiji period was rather sweet.

[1922 Akadama poster from Wikipedia]

Wine drinking doubled in the 1990s but is still low (though stable) at 4 liters per capita – on the other hand, this is by far the highest consumption in Asia. There are 175 (mostly tiny) domestic wineries in 36 prefectures and domestic sales account for about 36% of sales (2004 figures). This is down from a three-quarters share in 1983.

Japan’s vinicultural industry is still in the first place focused on producing table grapes, rather than great raw materials for wine making. Only one-tenth of the 230,000 tons of grape produced each year goes into wine making. It is difficult to grow grapes in Japan as the weather is too humid. Therefore budodana, overhead wires or platforms are used to expose the grapes to air circulation. Katsunuma is popular because it is a relatively dryer area. Other important areas are Nagano and Yamagata, as well as central Hokkaido, which has no monsoon problems but is on the other hand extremely cold for grape growing.

There are no vinefera vines truly native to Japan, although several have been introduced and evolved in such a unique way that they can be called “Japanese.” The most important variety of these is the Koshu, which is an excellent table grape, brought to Japan 1200 years ago along the Silk Road. A wild vine (yamabudo) found in Hokkaido, has been subject to development in the 60s and has been crossed with other varieties to produce larger and richer grapes. Used in wine, it has very little body. Most other vines used are hybrids as Kyoho and Delaware.

Grapes that fail to satisfy requirements as table grapes or that ripen late in season usually end up at wineries for the lower priced local labels.

[Katsunuma in winter, photo by Ad Blankestijn]

The domestic industry has tried to hold its own against foreign wines by using not only imported grapes, but also (more conveniently) imported bulk wine, grape concentrate and must. Labeling laws are (too) lax: as long as some local wine finds its way into the bottle, the rest may be foreign and the wine can still be labeled as a domestic brand!

Happily, the last ten years smaller wineries have stopped this bad habit and are concentrating on lifting the quality of their domestic product. Regional certification systems have been introduced to demonstrate that their wine is 100% from domestic grapes, grown, fermented and bottled in Japan. But these wineries often do not have their own vineyard or only a small one for experimental purposes. They are still dependant on grape-growers who can earn more by producing table grapes (four times as much). Some European grapes as Cabernet Sauvignon and Merlot have been planted recently, but these take up still less than 1% of total grape production.

As in the sake world, it are a few big labels who dominate the wine world (Mercian, Suntory, Sapporo, Manns (Kikkoman) and Asahi). These are improving in quality (Mercian stopped blending its more expensive wines in 2002), although the cheaper labels still have foreign produce mixed in. These cheap bottles are rather terrible: they taste as badly sweet as their prices are nicely “sweet.” For the best wines in Japan one has to go to the smaller family-owned wineries, again as in the sake world. Some examples of wineries who have a high reputation for quality are: Obuse Domaine Sogga, Hayashi Noen and Izutsu from Nagano, Domaine Takeda from Yamagata, Okuizumo from Shimane, Coco Farm from Tochigi and Kuzumaki from Iwate. But again, after tasting several of these wines, I have to say that most of them still lack body compared to foreign wines. That seems to be a lasting problem in Japan.

For this article information was used from the The Oxford Companion to Wine, 3rd Edition“. See also these Japan Times articles: Japanese wine: unadulterated and ready to go abroad and Japanese wine catching up to its competitors.

Tottori is a small prefecture as sake goes, with only an annual production of 1,573 kl and 24 breweries. There are no Tottori toji left anymore, usually toji from neighboring Izumo or Tajima come to work here. But that does not mean Tottori sake does not have a character of its own. Like other prefectures facing the open sea (Niigata, Toyama, Kochi) the sake is dry of character, but in contrast it is not light, but a bit heavy on amino acids – it has a pronounced rich taste which it shares with Shimane Prefecture, but which is very different from both Inland Sea facing prefectures in Western japan, Okayama and Hiroshima.

Sake rice developed about 70 years ago in Tottori itself is called Goriki (”strong power”) and grown in the Inaba area in the east of the prefecture. Also Gohyakumangoku, Tamasakae and Fukuhana are grown. Tottori is home to Nijuseiki pears and “pear yeast” is used in several “pear ginjos” by different makers. As the kura are all small, sake making still is mainly a handicraft in Tottori.

Here are some of the most famous breweries in Tottori:

Brand: Inabazuru (by Nakagawa Shuzo)
“Crane of Inaba” (Inaba is the old name for eastern Tottori). Company that revived the Goriki sake rice. Founded 1828 in Tottori City. Full and somewhat dry, as the character of the sake of Tottori is. Company has won many prizes at the National New Sake Competition.

Brand: Suwa Izumi (by Suwa Shuzo)
“Well of Suwa.” Named after the Suwa Shrine standing at the back of the brewery in Yazu-gun (north of Mimasaka in Okayama); founded in 1859. Fresh, but with astringency and a dry finish. Brews slowly with soft water. Clean air and cold winters. See profile at Esake.

Brand: Takaisami (by Otani Shuzo)
“Bravery of the Hawk.” Well-rounded and full-bodied, also uses the Goriki sake rice. Founded 1873. Located between Kurayoshi and Yonago, in western Tottori. The toji is from Izumo and now over eighty, has worked all his life for this company. He has received various awards.

Information from: National Tax Office and Japan Sake Breweries Association
Regional profile gleaned from: Nihonshu no Tekisuto (2): Sanchi no Tokucho to Tsukuritetachi by renowned sake journalist Matsuzaki Haruo (Doyukan, 2005). Some information about individual breweries based on Matsuzaki Haruo, Tastes of 1635 Shinpan Nihonshu Gaidobukku (Shibata Shoten 2003), as well as The Sake Companion by John Gaunter (Running Press) and The Insider’s Guide to Sake by Philip Harper (Kodansha International).