Nihon Chomiryo Tabi
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Nara is held to be the birthplace of refined sake. The account handed down is that the brewing techniques developed in its temples spread out from here.
Make sake and you are left with lees. Using those lees as a pickling bed is what gave us narazuke. Melon and cucumber are moved into fresh beds again and again and left until they turn amber. Not throwing away the byproduct but passing it on to the next flavor is a habit that has shaped how people eat here. Some foods, like Miwa somen, are held to improve the longer they sit.
- The birthplace of refined sake, and narazuke made with sake lees
- Somen, judged better the longer it is left to rest
Why Nara's shoyu tastes deep and rounded
What marks out Nara's shoyu is one thing: it is left for a long time. Something of the old capital's character remains, and ways of making that take their time are still in use.
Inoue Honten sits in Kyobate, south of Naramachi, and was founded in 1864. It uses whole domestic soybeans, domestic wheat, and sun-dried salt, and continues with tennen jozo (naturally brewed, no temperature control) for roughly 2 years in the brewery. It handles everything from raw material processing to bottling in-house, which makes it a rare fully integrated brewery today. Unlike mass-produced shoyu finished in a few months, a shoyu that has spent two years in the barrel has its sharper saltiness rounded off, with an aged aroma and a faint sweetness coming forward.
Nara is also home to hishio, held to be the ancestor of shoyu. Brewing that refuses to hurry fits the sense of time in this place.
Nara and hishio, the source of shoyu
Where shoyu itself began is disputed, with Yuasa in Wakayama and other places named, and no record establishes Nara Prefecture as its birthplace. What is handed down is that the culture of hishio, the thing shoyu came from, was closely tied to Nara as the seat of the capital.
Under the ancient ritsuryo system, hishio was made by packing soybeans, rice, wheat, and fish in salt and letting them ferment, and it supplied the imperial table. Wooden tablets referring to hishio have been excavated at the Heijo Palace site. Hishio would eventually branch off into miso, tamari (little or no wheat), and then shoyu, making it a distant ancestor of all of them.
This is the background to Inoue Honten, one of the breweries still working in Nara, brewing under the banner of the home of hishio.
Local dishes and their seasonings
- Narazuke (奈良漬)
- White melon, cucumber, and watermelon are salted first, then moved repeatedly into fresh beds of sake lees to age. Some are left for several years, until they turn amber. Nara's sake brewing meant sake lees were plentiful, which is credited as the reason it developed here, and the account handed down is that it spread nationwide under the name narazuke during the Edo period.
- Chagayu (茶がゆ)
- A thin rice porridge cooked in hojicha or bancha. It has been eaten at breakfast in Nara for generations, and is said to be served at Todai-ji's Shuni-e as well. It is usually paired with salty side dishes such as shoyu, pickles, and tsukudani, with Yuasa-style or Nara's paler shoyu sitting alongside the tea without covering its aroma.
- Miwa Somen (三輪素麺)
- Hand-stretched somen said to have originated in Miwa, Sakurai. Noodles drawn thin in winter are set aside to age, and those that have passed one rainy season are called hine, those that have passed two summers ohine. The longer they rest, the firmer the bite, and locally they are eaten in a dashi-rich usukuchi broth.
Makers in Nara
- Inoue HontenFounded in 1864
A brewery in Kyobate, south of Naramachi, that has brewed shoyu alongside its Meiji-era brick buildings. It uses whole domestic soybeans, domestic wheat, and sun-dried salt, and handles every step from raw material processing to bottling in-house. Its products include a koikuchi shoyu given roughly 2 years of tennen jozo in the brewery, and a happo dashi built on usukuchi.
Nearby prefectures
