Seasonings of Yamanashi

Koshu miso is what sets Yamanashi's flavor

Koshu miso, made in Yamanashi, is a blended miso that uses both rice koji and barley koji. Where most regions use one or the other, combining the two was the Koshu way. Because both the sweetness of rice and the aroma of barley go in, the flavor gains range.

Hoto is behind why this miso took hold. Pumpkin and other vegetables are simmered with flat noodles in miso, and the miso itself decides how the broth tastes. The need for a miso whose character survives long simmering is what shaped Koshu miso. Alongside it, a ready-seasoned dashi tsuyu has also been widely used across the prefecture.

Hoto and miso

Yamanashi was poor ground for rice. So a culture of milling wheat and eating it developed, and flour dishes like hoto became everyday food. The noodles are rolled and dropped straight into the miso soup to cook, so the body they release and the miso become one thing.

There is a story that Takeda Shingen used it as field rations, but accounts of the origin vary. What is certain is that the local circumstance of having to eat wheat in place of rice produced a dish with miso in the lead role. Kofu still has miso breweries dating from the early Meiji era.

Local dishes and their seasonings

Hoto (ほうとう)

Flat noodles of kneaded wheat flour are simmered with pumpkin and other vegetables in a miso-based broth. Because the noodles go in raw rather than being boiled and drained, the broth thickens.

Nigai (煮貝)

Abalone simmered in shoyu as a preserved food. The story in landlocked Yamanashi is that it came about by steeping in shoyu on the way over from Suruga.

Makers in Yamanashi

• Gomi ShoyuFounded in 1868
  A brewery in Kofu. It keeps making Koshu miso, which combines rice koji with barley koji.
• Tenyo TakedaFounded in 1872
  A seasoning maker in Kofu. Its dashi tsuyu, Bimisan, is widely used in households across the prefecture.