Gomi Shoyu Koshu Miso (五味醤油 甲州みそ)

The story behind it

Yamanashi miso is called Koshu miso, and it uses two kinds of koji (the fermentation culture Aspergillus oryzae): rice and barley.

What is unusual is how they are combined. Rather than mixing finished rice miso with finished barley miso, both kojis go in together with the beans and salt at the brewing stage. Yamanashi is mountainous with limited land for rice, so there was never enough rice koji to go around. Adding koji made from barley, grown as the off-season crop after rice, is said to be how this miso began.

Gomi Shoyu, founded in 1868, makes Koshu miso in Kofu. About 40 years ago it stopped producing shoyu to concentrate on miso and koji. Nothing is added, and it ages 6 to 10 months in kioke (wooden barrels) that have been in use since the postwar years.

A miso that is half rice koji and half barley koji is said to be one you never tire of. This is also the miso that goes into Yamanashi hoto.