Seasonings of Shizuoka

Honkarebushi and water-grown wasabi make Shizuoka's flavor

What Shizuoka's seasonings share is a clean flavor with little in the way of off-notes. Yaizu's honkarebushi is made by applying mold to arabushi and sun-drying it over and over, pulling out surplus moisture and fat and leaving only aroma and umami. The dashi drawn from it does not cloud, its color is pale, and it does not erase the outline of a dish. That clean character is why honkarebushi has been the choice in Kyoto cooking when color is not wanted.

The wasabi of the valleys has the same character. In the upper reaches of the Izu and Abe rivers, a method of raising it by running spring water down terraced tatami-ishi beds has been handed down. Grown in cold, clear water, it is said to keep sweetness and aroma behind the heat. Katsuobushi from the sea, wasabi from the mountains. Both are seasonings measured by the same yardstick: strip away the surplus, keep the aroma.

Yaizu's katsuobushi, and the beginnings of water-grown wasabi

Katsuobushi making in Yaizu is said to have begun in the Edo period, when the technique of smoking and drying arrived from Kishu, present-day Wakayama Prefecture. Suruga Bay lands bonito well, and onto that came the refinement of applying mold and aging, which established the area as a honkarebushi producer.

Wasabi cultivation is said to have begun at Utogi in Suruga Province, present-day Utogi in Aoi Ward, Shizuoka City, during the Keicho years (1596-1615), and an anecdote survives that it was presented to Tokugawa Ieyasu. There are several competing traditions about when and how it began, and the exact year has not been established. The distinctive method of running spring water down terraced tatami-ishi beds was recognized in 2018 as a Globally Important Agricultural Heritage System (GIAHS) under the name Heritage Cultivation of Shizuoka Water Wasabi. Honkarebushi from the sea, water-grown wasabi from the mountains. Both of Shizuoka's signatures rest on work accumulated since the Edo period.

Local dishes and their seasonings

Shizuoka oden (静岡おでん)

Skewers of kurohanpen and other fish cakes are simmered a long time in a dark broth taken from beef tendon and chicken bones. Just before eating, dashi powder (ground katsuobushi shavings or blue-backed fish) and aonori are sprinkled over, which is the distinctive touch. Building it on koikuchi shoyu dashi with the aroma of fish powder is the Shizuoka way.

Sakura ebi no kakiage (桜えびのかき揚げ)

Yui and Kanbara on Suruga Bay are the only ports in the country that fish for sakura shrimp. Raw shrimp is fried lightly in batter and eaten with salt or tentsuyu. Seasoning is kept restrained so the aroma of the shrimp carries.

Tororo jiru (とろろ汁)

A dish that has continued since the Edo period as the specialty of Mariko-juku on the Tokaido. Wild yam is grated and loosened with a miso-based dashi, then poured over barley rice. How the dashi and miso are balanced is what makes each household's version.

Makers in Shizuoka

• Chikiri Shimizu ShotenFounded in 1782
  A maker that has kept producing honkarebushi in Yaizu. It still holds to the heritage method of applying mold to arabushi and sun-drying it repeatedly, aging it over roughly six months.
• Tamaruya Honten
  A long-established house in Shizuoka dealing in real wasabi. Working from water-grown wasabi raised in clear streams, it makes products that put the aroma and heat to use.