Kakukyu Hatcho Miso (カクキュー 八丁味噌)

The story behind it

Hatcho village sat eight cho (about 870m) from Okazaki Castle. Kakukyu has been making miso there since 1645.

The ingredients are soybeans and salt, nothing else. This soybean miso, made without rice koji, is packed into wooden barrels nearly 2m across and 2m tall, and then a craftsman stacks about 3 tons of river stones on top by hand, in a cone. Weighted like that, it undergoes tennen jozo (naturally brewed, no temperature control) through "two summers and two winters," meaning more than 2 years. The stone stacks hold even in an earthquake, a skill passed down through generations.

Dense savoriness, a faint astringency, a trace of acidity. Neither miso-simmered udon nor miso katsu, the local dishes of Nagoya, make sense without this flavor. Once supplied to the Imperial Household Agency, it stands at the summit of Japanese soybean miso.