Nihon Chomiryo Tabi
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Aichi's miso is mame miso, brewed from soybeans alone with no rice or barley. The color is close to black, the sweetness restrained, and the character is a dense umami carrying sourness and astringency. It was made about eight cho from Okazaki Castle, which is where the name hatcho miso comes from.
The Nobi Plain, warm and humid, is also good ground for brewing. Hekinan makes Mikawa mirin from rice and rice koji, and Gamagori presses taihaku sesame oil without roasting. Dense miso next to clear mirin and clear oil. Contrasting seasonings sit side by side in one prefecture.
- Mame miso brewed from soybeans alone, and where hatcho miso got its name
- Brewing and pressing skills: Hekinan's mirin, Gamagori's sesame oil
Aichi's flavor is built on the bean
What runs through Aichi's seasonings is the soybean. Where most miso in Japan uses rice koji, what Aichi made was mame miso, with soybeans and salt as its only ingredients. Because it rests two years or more, the color is dark, the sweetness slight, and the flavor heavy with concentrated soybean umami.
The reason this method arose is climate. Summers in the Tokai region are hot and humid, which turns miso sour easily, so a mame miso that keeps well was the choice. And the liquid that pooled at the bottom of the barrel of brewing mame miso, drawn off, is tamari (little or no wheat). Aichi's miso and its shoyu are not separate products; they branched off the same method.
Hatcho miso and Mikawa mirin
The name hatcho miso comes from Hatcho Village, present-day Hacchocho, eight cho (about 870 meters) from Okazaki Castle. Several things came together to make the site suited to miso: rice grew poorly while soybeans grew well, there were salt fields at Kira, and it sat at the junction of river shipping on the Yahagi and the old Tokaido. Protection from the Tokugawa house is regarded as having mattered a great deal too.
In Hekinan, mirin has been made since the Edo period. Hon-mirin, brewed from nothing but glutinous rice, rice koji and shochu, has a gentle sweetness unlike sugar's and the power to give a dish its gloss. Aichi has miso, tamari and mirin all together, a prefecture with a high density of brewing.
Local dishes and their seasonings
- Nimiso (煮味噌)
- A home dish in which daikon, taro and konjac are simmered in mame miso broth. It puts to use the way mame miso holds its character through long cooking, and miso nikomi udon is an extension of the same thinking.
- Miso katsu and miso oden (味噌カツ・味噌おでん)
- Mame miso is worked into a sweet-salty sauce with mirin or sugar and spooned over fried food or oden. Rather than using the dense miso straight, evening it out with sweetness is the Aichi way.
Makers in Aichi
- Kakukyu Hatcho MisoFounded in 1645
A brewery that has kept making hatcho miso in Hacchocho, Okazaki. It still holds to the heritage build of stacking stones on kioke (wooden barrels) as weights. - Sumiya Bunjiro ShotenFounded in 1910
A brewery in Hekinan devoted to mirin. Committed to a method that draws out the sweetness of glutinous rice, it makes Sanshu Mikawa Mirin. - Takemoto Yushi (Maruhon)
A sesame oil maker in Gamagori. It offers sesame oils to suit different uses, including taihaku sesame oil, pressed without roasting.
Stories from this area
Nearby prefectures
