Seasonings of Kagoshima

In Fukuyama, Kirishima, black vinegar is brewed in ceramic pots lined up in the open air. Inside a single pot, saccharification, alcohol fermentation and acetic fermentation all proceed at once, a method with few parallels anywhere. It is said to go back about 200 years.

The shoyu, for its part, is sweet even by Kyushu standards. Rich and heavy with sugar, it goes on sashimi and into simmered dishes alike. The acidity of black vinegar and the sweetness of shoyu, two opposite ends, grew up in the same prefecture.

• Fukuyama black vinegar, with fermentation running at once in a single pot
• Shoyu that stands out as sweet even in Kyushu