Nihon Chomiryo Tabi
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Funazushi is crucian carp from Lake Biwa packed in salt and cooked rice, then left to ferment with lactic acid bacteria for a year or more. It is known as an older form of sushi, one that uses no vinegar at all. Waiting preserves the fish, and waiting also makes it taste better. That says a great deal about how this area thinks about fermentation.
East of the lake, breweries making shoyu (soy sauce) have been running since the Edo period. This was also the home of the Omi merchants who took their trade across the country, and the idea of selling something good for a long time carries over into how they brew.
- Funazushi, an older form of sushi made without vinegar, fermented with lactic acid bacteria
- Shoyu breweries east of the lake dating from the Edo period
Why Shiga's shoyu tastes rounded
In the Koto area east of Lake Biwa, shoyu breweries have kept working since the Edo period. Shoyu from here is koikuchi (the standard dark shoyu), yet people describe it as soft and rounded rather than sharp. The reason is how long it is aged. Most shoyu ages somewhere between six months and a year, while some of the old Koto breweries let theirs sit for several years. Over that time the yeasts and lactic acid bacteria keep working, and the bite of the salt gets smoothed away.
This is not the same as a sweet shoyu made sweet on purpose. Closer to say that the umami and aroma thicken until the shoyu reads as sweet. Some breweries still follow the older method of applying no artificial heat, leaving the work to the brewing microbes that live in the building, and that way of brewing is also credited with the roundness.
A place where the older shape of fermentation survives
Fermentation in Shiga goes back a long way. Funazushi, made by packing nigorobuna crucian carp from Lake Biwa in salt and cooked rice, is known as an older form of sushi that uses no vinegar. Preserving fish while lactic acid fermentation turns it into umami is regarded as one of the sources of narezushi.
Shoyu brewing developed in Koto during the Edo period. Good water, domestic soybeans and wheat, and the sales routes opened up by Omi merchants trading across the country are all credited with sustaining the breweries. Pinning the origin on a single house is difficult, and several breweries in Koto and Kohoku have each carried their own method through to the present.
Local dishes and their seasonings
- Funazushi (鮒ずし)
- Nigorobuna crucian carp from Lake Biwa is first salted, then repacked with cooked rice and left to ferment with lactic acid bacteria for a year or more. No vinegar is used. It has a strong sourness and a deep umami, and is eaten sliced as it is, or dropped into rice with hot tea poured over.
- Kogyo no Tsukudani (湖魚の佃煮)
- A home dish of small Lake Biwa fish such as young ayu and moroko, simmered slowly in shoyu and sugar. Koikuchi shoyu from the Koto area is the usual choice, and the dish is kept on hand as a standing side for rice.
Makers in Shiga
- Marunaka ShoyuFounded in the Kansei era, 1789 to 1801, roughly 220 years ago
A shoyu brewery in Aisho, working since the late Edo period. The brewing is left to the resident microbes living in the beams and the barrels, with no added heat, producing a koikuchi shoyu aged for 3 years by the older method. Four of its buildings are Registered Tangible Cultural Properties.
Nearby prefectures
