Katsuobushi & Katsuobushi Kezuriki

Bonito Flakes in the Kitchen: Katsuobushi and the Katsuobushi Kezuriki 鰹節と鰹節削り器

What is Katsuobushi? | History | Famous Production Areas | Shaving the Katsuobushi | Buy Katsuobushi

Katsuobushi fillet and katsuobushi kezuriki

Remember the first time you were served okonomiyaki (Japanese pancakes) in one of those dark, dingy, tiny but homely restaurants in Osaka? The first time you received a boat of takoyaki (wheat batter balls containing a piece of octopus)? Did you wonder what those wildly fluttering flakes on top of the dish? Those flakes almost seem to have a life of their own! It's the heat of the dishes underneath that makes them vibrate.

Those flakes are called katsuobushi and you encounter them in Japan quite frequently and in many different ways. They are used as soup stock, mixed with rice in onigiri rice balls and as topping on an endless variety of dishes ranging from tofu to soba noodles to meat (especially chicken), more recent recipes even include them as toppings on avocado and other imported foods.

Katsuobushi fillets

What is Katsuobushi?

Now, what are those katsuobushi? Roughly translated, katsuobushi means dried bonito flakes. Katsuo is the Japanese name for the skipjack bonito, a fish belonging to the tuna family.

The best meat of those fish, usually caught in the waters surrounding southern Japan, is filleted by hand and knife. Work that needs quite some skill. An experienced worker cuts the fillets from the fish in less than a minute.

Those fillets are then simmered close to the boiling point for an hour or more, then wood smoked up to a month. A smoking session lasts about six hours, then the fillet rests for a day. This process is repeated for about 12 to 15 times. Finally, the fillet is sun-dried for about two weeks with the help of a special mold, the Aspergillus glaucus. The mold ferments the fillet and removes any residual moisture.

When ready for sale, those fillets are hard as wood and brown on the outside, resembling short sticks of firewood. On the inside, they are a blackish purple. After scraping a section of the fillet, the exposed parts glisten in the light like dark, colored glass.

A katsuobushi-centered meal: katsuobushi-topped tofu, katsuobushi-topped bamboo sprouts, rice mixed with katsuobushi, miso soup using katsuobushi stock

History

Dried bonito is as old as Japan. The most ancient books refer to it as do the legends of the Ainu, the original inhabitants of the islands. Dried bonito could be stored for a long period, it was easy to transport, it was very nutritious and it was very tasty when mixed with rice. That ancient dried bonito was however not the same as the katsuobushi flakes in use today.

Those were invented by a man named Jintaro Kadoya in the Kumano domain (today's Wakayama Prefecture) in the mid-1600s. Kadoya came up with the concept of fumigating the katsuo fillets to preserve them in the best possible way.

Not finding the success with his invention he had hoped for in his native Kumano, Kadoya moved to the Tosa domain on the southern shore of Shikoku (today's Kochi Prefecture). There, the bonito catches were better and the locals embraced Kadoya's production method.

Producing katsuobushi in Tosa proved to be very challenging, however. The climate was wet and mold easily settled on the fillets when set out for sun-drying.

But soon, the Tosa locals producing katsuobushi in Kadoya's way learned how to deal with that ever pervasive mold. They incorporated the mold into the production process, turning the mold from a nuisance into the final step of refinement.

Tosa katsuobushi soon became all the rage on the markets of Edo and Osaka.

The production process was a closely guarded secret but that secret soon leaked out to the Satsuma domain (today's Kagoshima Prefecture). Production conditions in Kagoshima were very similar to those of Tosa (Kochi).

Traditional katsuobushi kezuriki

Famous Production Areas

Kochi and Kagoshima Prefectures are still the main producers of katsuobushi today. They got the brand name recognition, they got the history and the experience of family-run firms dealing with the product for centuries.

Shaving the Katsuobushi

Most common today are factory-shaved katsuobushi flakes. Those are sold in plastic bags in all Japanese supermarkets and they are the most easy to use.

It’s more fun, though, to produce the katsuobushi flakes in your kitchen by yourself. To do so, you need a special tool to shave the flakes from the wood-like katsuobushi fillet.

Traditionally, for this purpose a katsuobushi kezuriki is used. Essentially, that’s a wooden box with a blade inserted. You move the katsuobushi fillet with a certain amount of strength over the blade functioning as a sort of wood plane. The shaved-off flakes are collected in the drawer below the blade.

Working the blade needs a certain amount of practice, though. You need to figure out how exactly to hold the fillet stick and what amount of pressure to apply. If done incorrectly, the result of the shaving will be rather a reddish rough powder than the desired flakes.

That powder is delicious and can be used in salads, for example. But you wanted the flakes, right? The real thing.

Those can be more easily produced using a mechanic katsuobushi shaving machine. Of course, the mechanic shaver leaves you a little short on the experience of cooking in real traditional Japanese style but it provides you with the desired result easily and efficiently.

A katsuobushi fillet and katsuobushi kezuriki

Buy Katsuobushi

Goods from Japan offers all the options, the wood-like fillet sticks and the old-style kezuriki as well as two kinds of mechanic shavers, one named the Okaka and the other the Kakuta-Kun, and of course, the most easy-to-use bagged factory-made katsuobushi flakes.

Purchase a range of Japanese foodstuffs and drinks from GoodsFromJapan.

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Ghosts of the Tsunami

Ghosts of the Tsunami: Death and Life in Japan's Disaster Zone

Ghosts of the Tsunami: Death and Life in Japan's Disaster Zone

by Richard Lloyd Parry

Picador (2017)

ISBN: 978-1250192813
Paperback, 276 pp

On March 11, 2011, Japan's Tohoku region (northeast coast) was struck by what has been called a triple disaster: the largest earthquake in the country's history (and fourth largest in the history of seismology), followed by an enormous tsunami, followed by a disastrous nuclear meltdown.

The earthquake was 9.0 on the Richter Scale, knocked the earth off its axis by six and a half inches, and moved the whole of Japan 13 feet closer to America. The tsunami reached heights of 120 feet and erased numerous villages from the face of the earth. The nuclear meltdown joined the Chernobyl disaster as one of the two worst nuclear accidents in history.

When the final numbers of the triple disaster were added up, the costs were set at $US210, billion (the costliest natural disaster ever) in damage, half a million people homeless and 18,500 dead. Of course, many of the survivors still suffer from trauma.

While author Parry does give attention to the earthquake and the nuclear meltdown, he focuses most of his scrutiny on the tsunami – most specifically the drowning of 74 students and 10 teachers of Okawa Elementary School in Ishinomaki City, Miyagi Prefecture, who lost their lives due to some incredibly poor decisions made by that school's officials.

While some sixth-grade boys begged to be let out of school to run up a nearby hill to safety, the teachers said no, then later directed students and staff towards the incoming tsunami.

Parry, who had worked 16 years in Japan at the time of the triple disaster, follows the lives of the local survivors, including their attempts - through the courts and otherwise - at getting to the truth of what happened at Okawa Elementary.

The ghosts from the title of the book refer to supernatural phenomena that were reported after the tsunami. The ghost stories are somewhat interesting, but can probably be better explained by either mental illness due to the enormous stress people there had to endure, or depending on your belief system, demon possession.

In any case, psychists and mediums often gave completely different answers to questions they received such as where the best place to look for bodies would be and whether the deceased children were now happy or miserable.

Although the book is recommended reading, there are a few minor annoyances. One is the author's dependence on/love of his thesaurus. Numerous words like frisson, tannoy, catarrh, rotas, lineaments and other very low-usage words are sprinkled throughout the book. His oeuvre is bumfuzzling.

Another annoyance is the low quality of the half dozen pictures in the book. This is likely the result of using low quality paper. Also, cutlines (captions) on the pictures, something that would have been helpful, are non-existent.

Parry shows great empathy towards the people of Tohoku (which he inexplicably says is pronounced "Tour hock-oo"), but he gives no breaks to the two men deemed by him and others to be the most responsible for the school children's deaths.

Overall, the book is a good read into some of the darkest days in Japanese history.

Review by Marshall Hughes.

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Introduction to Japanese Masks

An Introduction to Japanese Masks お面

Noh Theatre | Hannya | Oni Demon | Tengu | Sarutahiko | Purchase Japanese Masks

A selection of onna masks representing young women in Noh Dramas

Like many ancient cultures all around the planet, Japan has used and produced various types of masks that were probably originally used in rituals and magic and that later developed into storytelling and theatre. Outside of the various types of masked theatre, numerous participants in festivals wear masks.

There are many recognizable types of masks that are found all over the country and can be said to represent a purely Japanese style, but many regions and localities have unique forms not found elsewhere in the country.

In Japan, masks are considered to possess power and so are used not just as decoration but also to protect shrines, temples, and increasingly homes.

A Noh-mask carver in Hofu, Yamaguchi, applying pigment to a mask

Noh Theatre

Japanese mask-making reached its peak with the masks created for Noh dramas. Noh is a style of musical theatre from the 14th century and is still performed today. Masks are integral to Noh, with hundreds of different ones produced for characters both human and supernatural, but an interesting feature of noh masks is that to a large extent they are made to be expressionless. The art is in making masks that display different emotional states just by changing the angle of the mask. Noh masks are carved from a single block of wood, usually cypress, and painted using minimal, natural pigments.

The most iconic of Japanese masks, the female demon known as Hanya

Hannya

Perhaps the most well-known Noh mask is the Hanya, or Hannya, a type of female demon. With sharp horns and teeth, and a somewhat leering mouth, Hanya masks express a range of emotions from demonic and angry to tormented and melancholic as the Hanya represents what happens to women when they are betrayed and become angry and jealous. The hanya mask is so iconic it is seen in many other forms of art and is a very popular design element in tattoos.

A selection of wooden masks made not to be worn but displayed

Oni Demon

The Oni mask is probably the type of mask with the widest variations across the different regions of the country. Oni is most often translated as "demon", but in fact "ogre" would probably be a better translation as in the West demons are considered pure evil, but oni, while generally doing bad, can in some cases be capable of doing good. Oni come in a variety of colors and are usually quite hairy and horned and in many stories are obviously linked with outsiders and the wild and dangerous mountains.

Namahage demon masks from the Tohoku area of northern Japan

Tengu

Often referred to as "forest goblins", red-faced and long-nosed Tengu are also a very common mask found throughout Japan. Earlier versions of the Tengu called Karasu Tengu, "Crow Tengu", had beaks but most nowadays have the very phallic long nose and wear a small black cap called a tokin which are worn by the mountain-dwelling ascetics called Yamabushi who spend time in the mountains gaining magical powers. Tengu and yamabushi are inextricably linked and tengu masks are very common at shrines and temples and sacred mountains connected to Yamabushi all over Japan.

Masks from the Kunisaki Peninsula in Kyushu are very striking and would not look out of place in Africa

Sarutahiko

The development of the long-nosed Tengu from the Crow Tengu is probably linked to a character from ancient mythology called Sarutahiko. He is said to have led the imperial ancestors to Japan from the High Plain of Heaven.

Consequently a character wearing a Sarutahiko mask will usually lead a festival procession, though nowadays it may just as likely be a tengu mask. Sarutahiko married a goddess called Uzume and they are said to be the ancestors of the clan who served as theatrical performers.

She is often represented with a rather chubby, round-faced mask, and a male-female pair of Sarutahiko and Uzume masks are commonly found together. They are also used in a few of the remaining phallic festivals that remain in Japan.

In many agricultural-based festivals and folk dances male dancers wear rather comical, simple-minded, peasant masks. Often playing the fool, he is often represented with his mouth stuck in a twisted and protruded position that comes from a character called Hyottoko whose face is stuck in that expression by blowing through a bamboo pipe to keep the coals of a forge fire going.

Masks of various kinds, especially demons, are put up in buildings to protect against various forms of misfortune, but some masks, specifically those of  Daikoku and Ebisu who are two of the Seven Lucky Gods, are put up especially by businesses, to attract good fortune and success.

Purchase a Range of Traditional Masks from Japan

Purchase a selection of traditional masks from GoodsFromJapan

Jake Davies

Gallery

A mask-maker in Oita working on a Hanya mask

Standing guard during Setsubun at a Kyoto temple, an unusual single-horned oni mask

A variety of different Tengu masks including a Karasu Tengu, top centre

Giant Tengu mask at Kurama, a famous yamabushi site near Kyoto

Sarutahiko, wearing a tengu mask, leads a mikoshi parade

Hyottoko mask worn during a rice planting festival

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Japanese Culture Religious and Philosophical Foundations

Japanese Culture: The Religious and Philosophical Foundations

Japanese Culture: The Religious and Philosophical Foundations

by Roger J. Davies

Tuttle (2016)

ISBN: 978-4805311639
Paperback, 160 pp

What have been the most powerful influences shaping Japan over its long history? Exactly what has each of these influences contributed to make Japan what it is today?

Professor Roger J. Davis has put together this interesting book from his college lectures designed for international business students studying in an MBA program at Hitotsubashi University in Tokyo.

At 160 pages (125 without the appendixes), it is not an exhausting tome, but it is enough to inform and entertain any reader wanting some of the basics.

The first two chapters are spent not on expounding on the most significant influences, but on the basics of where the Japanese people came from and what models social scientists usually use in dissecting civilizations.

From there, there are six more chapters, with each chapter dealing with one of what Davies says are the main influences which helped shape Japanese society. Arranged chronologically, they are: Shinto, Buddhism, Taoism, Zen, Confucianism and Western Influences in the Modern Era.

Each chapter ends with extra notes on that chapter's main topic, followed by discussion questions. Some of the discussion questions can be answered quickly, even by novices. An example from the Western Influences chapter would be; "It is often claimed that contemporary Japanese society is highly secular and materialistic. Do you agree or disagree?" Anybody who has lived in Japan for any period of time can offer a reasonable opinion on this.

Other discussion questions require a deeper knowledge to even attempt an answer. An example of this from the Zen chapter would be; "Although Zen is not the largest sect in Japan, it is the most popular and widely recognized in the West. Why is it not as popular as other Buddhist sects in Japan?"

For all of its modern technological wonders, Japan got off to a late start according to Edwin Reischaeur, former US Ambassador to Japan, who is frequently quoted throughout the book, and who has several entries in the helpful six-page bibliography.

Reischaeur is quoted as saying, "The (Japanese) islands were thousands of years behind Europe, the Middle East, the Indian subcontinent and China in the introduction of agriculture and centuries behind in the use of bronze and iron."

One of the more interesting sections delineates how the Japanese government started and propagated state Shinto - with special focus on education and thought police - to move the Japanese citizens towards accepting war.  Shinto and state Shinto were very different things.
Reischaeur makes the case that state Shinto was "a ruthless attack on Buddhism." It sure was an attack on something.

Overall, the book would be interesting for almost any reader, but if you are already an expert on the religious and philosophical foundations of Japan, you might find the depth a little lacking.

Note: This book is a follow up to Davies' well-acclaimed "The Japanese Mind: Understanding Contemporary Japanese Culture," which was published in 2002.

Review by Marshall Hughes.

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Exposure Review

Exposure: From President to Whistleblower at Olympus

Exposure

by Michael Woodford

Penguin (2013)

ISBN: 978-0241-9636-16
Paperback, 272 pp

One of the biggest financial scandals in Japanese history was the 2011 scandal surrounding Olympus Corporation. The scandal is said to have involved $US1.7 billion, or more.

In April, 2011, British national Michael Woodford, who had worked at Olympus for 30 years, became chief operating officer, and in October of that year he took the reigns as chief executive officer. Almost immediately after becoming CEO, Woodford sniffed out giant financial shenanigans in Olympus and started asked questions.

Two weeks after taking over he was fired for, it turned out, having uncovered the malfeasance, but he remained on the board of directors as those positions are determined by shareholders.

Fearing for his life, and suspecting that Japan's yakuza might be involved in the fraud - a suspicion that turned out to be erroneous - Woodford fled Japan and headed home to England.

He immediately contacted the Serious Fraud Office and New Scotland Yard, and was interviewed by a number of major media. He had covered his bases well by sending emails with his questions and suspicions to numerous people. The word was out, and he was safely, hopefully safely, in England.

In 2012, Woodford wrote this book about the whole sordid affair.
One thing that many readers must overlook is the seemingly unquenchable ego that Woodford displays throughout the book. He is to be commended for working his way up from a lowly start in life, but he is eager to let everyone know how posh his lifestyle was.
There are numerous examples of this, from his expensive champagne to his hotel room with the 1,000-book library and baby grand piano. Admittedly he was upgraded to that by his hotel for being a frequent customer, but you get the idea.

The book was written in late 2012, and occasionally references are a bit anachronistic. For example, of the four foreigners who had headed major Japanese companies he writes, "with only Carlos Ghosn of Nissan remaining, Japan seemed to be shutting the doors (on foreign leaders of Japanese companies)." The door on Ghosn would later shut as he escaped the country in 2019 while hiding in a musical instrument box while out on bail for alleged crimes during a later corporate scandal involving a foreign CEO.

One thing that inquiring minds will want to know is what happened to the bad guys involved. How many of them got locked up in jail and for how long? The book doesn't answer these questions, but the info can be found on line. Hint: Not many and not long enough.

The civil lawsuits were more fruitful. In May of 2019, well after the book was published, the Tokyo District court handed out a fine of 59.4 billion yen (then US $594 million) to the three main miscreants, former president Tsuyoshi Kikukawa, former executive vice president Hisashi Mori and former statutory auditor Hideo Yamada.
Additionally, Woodford was later awarded £10 million for personal damages.

The exact fraud, basically a tobashi scheme, is not fully explained until about ¾ of the way through the book. The explanation may be a little bit hard to follow for some laymen, but readers don't need to fully understand how it worked to understand the gravity of the situation.
After all, $US1,700,000,000 ($1.7 billion) is a lot of fraud.
Woodford's work is easy to read and the pages fly by. Readers don't have to like Woodford personally (though some certainly will) to enjoy the book and learn about an interesting chapter of recent Japanese history.

Review by Marshall Hughes.

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Japanese Paper Lanterns For Films & Theatrical Performances

Japanese Paper Lanterns  ちょうちん（提灯)

Our Japanese paper lanterns are hand-made and of the highest quality. They have been used on film sets and theatrical productions both overseas and in Japan.

The customer can choose the design or leave that to GoodsFromJapan to suggest both classic and contemporary motifs such as pictured here.

Various sizes and qualities are available to suit all budgets.

These beautiful lanterns also make beautiful gifts for the home.

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Yuzukosho Spice of Kyushu

Yuzukosho (柚子胡椒) - The Spice of Kyushu

Fruit | Spice | Fundokin | Purchase

by Johannes Schonherr

Yuzu fruits

Yuzu are a citrus fruit famous for their strong fragrance, grown mainly on the southwestern Japanese islands of Kyushu and Shikoku.

Yuzukosho (yuzu pepper) is a paste made of yuzu peel, green chili pepper, salt and a bit of yuzu juice which has been traditionally used in nabemono hot pot soups, typically eaten in winter.

Nowadays, the variety of use for yuzukosho as an ingredient has spread far and wide: from various Japanese soup dishes like udon and soba to yakiniku barbecue to steak seasoning. Some adventurous restaurants serve their sushi and sashimi with yuzukosho rather than wasabi.

Western chefs have also picked up on yuzukosho as an exotic yet multi-purpose spice, enlivening their creations with an earthy yet highly refined note.

Yuzu (柚子) are a winter fruit in Japan

Yuzu Fruits

Buy a premium quality yuzu at a farm in Kyushu or at a department store elsewhere in Japan and take it out of its protective plastic cover.

The fragrance of the fruit quickly fills the room.

That's why it is an old Japanese custom to let a few yuzu swim in the onsen hot spring bath water on a winter solstice night: yuzu being a winter fruit, it brings out the best of the smells of the season.

Cut open the fruit and you will be bit disappointed: plenty of seeds embedded in rather loose flesh. Very little juice can be extracted from a single fruit.

It is the outer yuzu peel that is precious. That's the part of the fruit responsible for the fragrance. Cut the outer, yellow peel off a ripe fruit and you will find it to be a delicious ingredient in soups, salads, pasta or meat dishes.

Yuzu on sale at a Japanese supermarket

Fresh yuzu fruits can be a bit hard to come by outside of Japan, however.

A limited amount of yuzu is grown in California, for example, but as food writer Helen Rosner stated in an article for The New Yorker in February 2020 aptly titled Nothing Compares to Yuzu, "the U.S.D.A. [United States Department of Agriculture] has a ban on the import of fresh yuzu from abroad - the fruit and the trees." After lamenting the high prices for yuzu on the U.S. East Coast, she continues saying, "I'm told that, among New York chefs, there is a thriving black market in fresh yuzu smuggled from Japan."

Yuzukosho however can freely be shipped from Japan to the U.S. and anywhere else. Goods from Japan is an easy and reliable source.

Yuzu fruit and Yuzukosho

Yuzukosho

So, what exactly is yuzukosho? Yuzukosho is a fermented paste made up of the peel of unripe green yuzu, green chili pepper, salt and a bit of yuzu juice.

It contains all the fragrance of the yuzu, it is spicy, can be used for a wide variety of purposes (you might want to experiment with it a bit) and it remains in good, fresh condition for a very long time.

The origin of yuzukosho is central-northern Kyushu. Around the city of Hita in Oita Prefecture, about halfway between the Pacific coast and Fukuoka, farmers have made yuzukosho for centuries. Mainly for their own private use though some of the specialty certainly found its way to the markets of bustling Hita, known in the Edo Period as the Kyoto of Kyushu.

Yuzukosho remained a decidedly local spice of northern Kyushu well into the 1990s, sold at souvenir shops in Yufuin and other hot spring resorts as a sort of unique local gift to take home to friends.

Fundokin Green Yuzukosho

Things changed in the late 1990s when Fundokin, a major maker of miso paste and shoyu (soy sauce), based in the old coastal samurai town of Usuki, just south of Oita City, began to sell and promote yuzukosho on a national level.

Suddenly, yuzukosho became available in stores all over Japan. Chefs in Tokyo and elsewhere took notice and incorporated the spice into their dishes. Snack makers came up with yuzukosho rice crackers, yuzu fruit cakes - if you look out for anything yuzu in any Japanese supermarket, you will find a wide variety of yuzu and yuzukosho products.

The original Fundokin Green Yuzukosho, produced in Usuki, Oita

Purchase

The original Fundokin Green Yuzukosho, produced in Usuki, Oita without using any additives is conveniently available in the food section at Goods from Japan.

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Hoshigaki Japanese Dried Persimmons

Hoshigaki Japanese Dried Persimmons - A Traditional Japanese Winter Treat 干し柿

Making Hoshigaki | Purchasing Hoshigaki | Uses of Hoshigaki | Ichida Kaki | Buy Hoshigaki

Hoshigaki hung up to dry in Japan

Taking an autumn stroll pretty much anywhere in Japan, you will see trees bulging with kaki (persimmon fruits). Kaki are one of the most popular autumn fruits in Japan. Countryside farmers grow them but they can also be frequently found in suburban gardens.

Most of those kaki are of the amagaki variety, the sweet sort. After peeling, you can eat these fruits right away. They are delicious as fresh fruits.

From early December on, hoshigaki, dried persimmons, are also on sale. Akin to dried figs in Western countries, they are a popular winter sweet. In Japan, they are often served with a hot cup of green tea.

Kaki tree in autumn

The Making of Hoshigaki

It may sound surprising but those sweet hoshigaki are made from quite bitter fruits. Besides those sweet amagaki type kaki ready to eat as a fresh fruit, there is another variety of kaki called shibugaki. It's those shibugaki from which hoshigaki are produced.

Shibugaki translates as 'astringent persimmon': persimmon with a bitter, pungent taste that seems to contract your mouth. Biting into such a fruit is quite unpleasant. (In fact, biting into an unripe sweet kaki has the same effect.)

Shibugaki trees are particularly common in cold, mountainous areas throughout Japan.

In the old days, when besides fresh fruit hardly any sweets were available in Japanese mountain areas, people had to find a way to get their sugar fix for the long winter months. Thus, they found a way to turn those bitter shibugaki into a delicious, nourishing sweet.

Hoshigaki are made today the same way as centuries ago. Shibugaki fruits are collected, then peeled by hand with the help of a knife. Right after peeling the fruits' stems are connected to a rope, often many fruits along one rope.

The ropes are then hung outside in a rain-protected place exposing the peeled fruits to direct sunlight and wind. Usually the protruding roofs of the farm houses serve to provide rain protection. Rain protection is important: if the peeled fruits get wet, they would start to rot.

Being in the usually bright and steady sunlight of the Japanese autumn, along with the usually gently breezes of the season turns the fruits from bitter to sweet. Every few days, they need to be massaged by hand to keep their texture even.

The fruits hang out to dry for about six weeks to two months. Then, they are taken down and placed onto straw mats and kept outside for another 10 days or so.

At the end of the process, the fruits have shrunk to about one fourth of their original weight, they have become considerably smaller. A sticky, greyish white substance covers them. That substance is fruit sugar.

The hoshigaki are now ready for consumption.

Persimmon (kaki)

Purchasing Hoshigaki

Hoshigaki are a seasonal product. They are available in stores and markets only from early December to about late February or early March.

There a various kinds of hoshigaki on sale. The two main varieties are koro kaki which are solid, easy to cut and not too sweet and ampo kaki which are very soft and very sweet.

There are also considerable differences in the package sizes. Very common in supermarkets are packages of about 9 fruits. You can however also purchase large packs of the dry fruits tightly packed together. Those latter ones are usually all connected by one long, thin rope – the rope they were originally dried on.

Uses of Hoshigaki

Hoshigaki can be eaten as a snack just the way they are - as sweet dry fruits. The koro kaki variety is also often used in salads, cut up into smaller pieces and eaten as a snack with cheese and wine or used in cakes, cookies or other bakery products. There are also used in a wide variety of traditional Japanese confectionary.

Hoshigaki drying

Ichida Kaki 市田柿

Ichida kaki (aka Ichidagaki) is the brand name for a type of koro hoshigaki from the former Shinano Province in today's southern Nagano Prefecture.

They are grown and prepared in the region around the small town of Takamori, located in the valley of the Tenryu River, right between the Kiso Mountains (aka the Central Japanese Alps) and the Akaishi Mountains (aka the Southern Japanese Alps).

There, the climate consists of hot and humid summers, cold winters and a long, dry autumn. Ideal for the production of hoshigaki. In fact, the town of Takamori calls itself proudly the 'home of hoshigaki'.

Ichida kaki are today the perhaps most popular hoshigaki brand in Japan. They are all grown and prepared on small local farms in the area, each pack carries the name and address of the farm its product originates from.

Ichida kaki typically have a sugar content of about 65% to 70%, one dried fruit weights about 20 gram.

Just as they work perfectly well as a Japanese winter snack, Ichida kaki make also for a fitting and delicious Christmas snack in Western environs.

Ichida kaki

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You can purchase Ichida kaki conveniently from Goods from Japan. The product is usually only available in winter.

Purchase a range of Japanese foodstuffs and drinks from GoodsFromJapan.

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A small pack of Ichida kaki, containing nine fruits

© GoodsFromJapan.com

Convenience Store Woman Review

Convenience Store Woman

Convenience Store Woman

by Sayaka Murata

Grove Press (2018)

ISBN: 978-0-8021-2825-6
Hardback, 163 pp

Keiko is a 36-year-old convenience store worker who has worked part-time for exactly half of her life at a Smile Mart Convenience Store. She's never had a boyfriend, or seemingly any kind of male relationship. She lives in an old, run-down apartment which is all she can afford. She enjoys what she does, and gets her self-worth from her job - which she is quite good at. She is completely focused on her job, and looks at life through the lens of being a convenience store worker.

Although she is happy with her life, nobody else seems to be. Her few friends outside of work consider her to be less than an adult and not normal since she has neither married nor launched her career. They are getting married and having children, and their life experiences no longer match Keiko's. Her sister wonders what's wrong with Keiko.

Trying to pigeon-hole her "problem," if she indeed has one, is quite difficult for the reader, who might surmise she has a low IQ or is unmotivated, socially inept or just a bit of a weirdo. A few times she is portrayed as being little more than a psychopath. The author seems to want to be vague about her "problem."

For some, it might look like she is nothing more than Toto-Chan on steroids.

It turns out that perhaps her biggest problem is what others think of her. The author is a bit heavy handed about this point, going overboard a time or two and heading towards unrealistic dialogue. Keiko is finally presented with, and jumps at, a chance to be "normal." Is this really what is best for her, and can she cope and not be taken advantage of?

Pretty much all books get good and bad reviews. Reviews of this book probably vary more widely than most. If you understand Japanese literature well, or maybe don't fit in with society for whatever reason, you probably have a better chance of grasping and appreciating this book.

Some call it insightful, humorous, wonderful and a concise insight into modern society. Others react with, "What the heck did I just read? That was a real snoozer."

Regardless of what some readers might think of the book, the people who give out the Akutagawa Award, Japan's most prestigious literary award, were impressed. Convenience Store Woman won the Akutagawa Award in 2016.

Review by Marshall Hughes.

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Kaki no Tane Rice Crackers

Japanese Rice Crackers Kaki no Tane 柿の種

History of Kaki no Tane | Kameda Kaki no tane | Other Varieties | Buy Kaki no Tane

Packs of Kameda Kaki no tane rice crackers at a Japanese supermarket

Kaki no tane translates as "persimmon (kaki) seed". In this case, however, it's the name of a particular kind of Japanese rice cracker somewhat resembling actual persimmon seeds in size, shape, and color.

The baked crackers, made of rice, are coated with a mixture of typical Japanese ingredients like soy sauce, bonito flake flavor, and, most importantly, chili. So, they are on the spicy side but not really red pepper hot.

To further mitigate their spiciness, they are today typically sold in a mix with roasted peanuts in a 7:3 ratio: 70% Kaki no tane, 30% peanuts.

As it goes with those little snacks, you open a mini pack to have a little thing to eat while you have a beer, watch a movie, or work on the computer - and when you look up, you discover that you are already well into your third mini pack. Once you start eating them, it's difficult to stop.

A pack of Kameda Kaki no tane contains six or nine mini packs

History of the Snack

Senbei, Japanese rice crackers, date back to the Nara period (710 - 794), a time of great innovations, often inspired by China. Many different styles of senbei developed over the centuries but basically, senbei remained round, flat and had a diameter of about 3 to 5 centimeters. Senbei were and are usually eaten with a cup of green tea in an afternoon setting.

The kaki no tane have, however, their own legend. A man named Yosaburo Imai ran a typical senbei store in Nagaoka in rice-rich Niigata Prefecture in the 1920s when he hired a young man from Osaka. That young man, unnamed in the annals of senbei lore, taught Imai the Kansai style of making senbei - using a different type of rice and coating the senbei with salted, sugared soy sauce, bonito flakes thrown in, and, most importantly, plenty of chili pepper. Using the Kansai recipe, Imai's business grew rapidly.

One day in 1923, Imai's wife inadvertently stepped on the senbei molds, breaking the senbei inside into small oval-shaped pieces.

Imai sold the broken senbei anyway, apologizing to every customer. One customer told him: "They are great! They look like persimmon seed!" Indeed, the batch sold very quickly. People asked for more of the same.

That gave Imai the idea to pursue the making of persimmon seed-shaped senbei. In 1925, he introduced the first Kaki no tane as a commercial product.

As successful as his Kaki no tane were right from the start, Imai didn't patent his creation and the recipe quickly leaked out. Kaki no tane became the generic term for persimmon seed-shaped senbei and many manufacturers started to produce them.

Kameda Kaki no tane

Today, Niigata City-based manufacturer Kameda Seika is by far the largest producer of Kaki no tane. On some of their packs (but not all of them) they print in English their proud claim "The No.1 Rice Snack in Japan" over an image of Mount Fuji.

Kameda Kaki no tane come in packs containing either six or nine 28-gram mini packs of the rice cracker / peanut mix.

In fact, when the mix was introduced in the 1950s, it was called kakipea - a word combination of kaki (persimmon) and pea, short for peanuts.

By now, however, the Kaki no tane / peanut mix has become the standard. So, it doesn't say kakipea on the packages anymore, it only says "Kaki no tane".

Of course, it's still possible to buy packs of Kaki no tane without any peanuts in them.

Kameda Kaki  no tane with peanuts ready to eat

Other Varieties

While the soy sauce / chili coating delivers the classic taste of Kaki no tane - still having by far the largest market share - other varieties of Kameda Kaki no tane are available as well. The most famous and most commonly available of those are the green Wasabi Kaki no tane which are really, really spicy. They come without any peanuts mixed in, of course.

Ume (Japanese plums, fruits closer to apricots than Western plums) would seem to provide a perfect taste variation for Kaki no tane. They do, in the form of the Kameda Ume Shizo Kaki no tane.

In collaboration with the Meiji Chocolate Company, Kameda even offers two kinds of sweet chocolate-coated Kaki no tane: Milk Chocolate & White Chocolate, a mix of black and white choco rice crackers as well as Choco & Almond, a mix of milk chocolate-coated Kaki no tane and roasted almonds. These are the ones sold nationwide.

Kameda also cooperates with regional manufacturers providing coatings featuring classic tastes associated with the respective region - with the product sold only in that region: Matsuo Lamb Meat in Hokkaido, Garlic in Tohoku, White Shrimp in Hokuriku, Sakura Shrimp in Shizuoka, extra hot Shima Chili in Okinawa. An incomplete list for sure.

The gold standard however remains the by-now classic soy sauce / chili Kaki no tane mix with roasted peanuts. You can find them in every Japanese supermarket. You can also order them from Goods from Japan.

A nine mini pack package of Kameda Kaki no tane

Buy Kaki no Tane

Purchase a range of Japanese foodstuffs and drinks from GoodsFromJapan.

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Ema Votive Plaques

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by Johannes Schonherr

© GoodsFromJapan.com

All About Japan - Stories, Songs, Crafts and Games for Kids

All About Japan - Stories, Songs, Crafts and Games for Kids

All About Japan - Stories, Songs, Crafts and Games for Kids

by Willamarie Moore

Tuttle Publishing (2017)

ISBN: 978-4805313947
Hardback, 64 pp

Young readers join 10-year-old Yuto and 12-year-old Momoka as they explain all about Japan from a child's perspective. Yuto lives in the countryside with his large (for modern days) family, and Momoka, an only child, lives in Tokyo. Both are fun, active kids involved in many things.

The children talk about their living arrangements. Yuto lives in a traditional old Japanese house, and he explains things like shoji, fusuma, tatami etc., while Momoka lives in a modern 2LDK apartment with many high-tech gadgets.

The children also mention their three favorite places in Japan, a typical day in their lives and Japanese culture; consisting of things schoolchildren are interested in these days such as manga, anime and video games. Their parents will be more drawn to other things explained such as ikebana, kabuki and shodo.

As for activities, readers will learn the ingredients for and how to prepare okonomiyaki, mochi and onigiri, how to fold paper into things like frogs and samurai helmets by using origami, and even the 10 steps necessary to perform in bon dances. If your young one doesn't know how to use chopsticks, that is covered, too. So is writing nengajo, a cultural part of Japan which is fading away, at least among the young.

There are slightly more "academic" sections on things like the myths of the origins of Japanese people and the appearance of Commodore Perry's Black Ships in 1868. Even long-time foreign residents of Japan might learn something if they don't already know about Izanagi and Izanami. The basics of haiku are also covered.

There is little to no kanji in the book except for translations of the few haiku and when readers will learn how to write numbers 1-10 in Japanese. Kanji, hiragana and katakana are all briefly explained.

One of the longest sections, taking about a quarter of the book, regards Japanese holidays and celebrations. Here, subjects such as oshogatsu, kodomo no hi, tanabata and o-bon are touched upon.

The final pages offer a few helpful resources to help children learn about Japan.

The book is large (8.5 x 11 inches, or 21.6 x 28 cm), and the drawings are fun, colorful and level appropriate.

Tuttle, the publisher, recommends this book for 8-12 year-olds. Eight might be a little young for a few of the pages, especially the four-page Japanese folktale of "The Boy Who Drew Cats," but consider it a challenge. Ratings for this read on various sites are high, with one site listing 97% of raters giving it four or five stars. The book won the 2012 Creative Child Magazine Preferred Choice Award.

Review by Marshall Hughes.

Buy this book from Amazon USA | UK | Japan

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Convenience Store Woman