Located near JR Fukui Station in the central city center of Fukui City, Fukui Prefecture, the brewery Tokoyama Shuzo’s representative brand is “Jozan,” known for its crisp, clear, dry taste, which has gained in maturity since Shinpei Tsuneyama, the ninth-generation master brewer, became master brewer. The mother and son, who inherited the spirit of their father, who passed away suddenly in the middle of his career, have further deepened the flavor of the sake to make it dryer and more suitable for today’s palate.

What is the ninth generation’s goal in sake brewing?

The Tsuneyama Brewery was founded in 1804, in the late Edo period. It is the oldest brewery in Fukui City. The brewery began as a purveyor to the Fukui clan, and by the Taisho era (1912-1926), it had become the largest sake brewery in Fukui City. Each time, the brewery was revived with the support of drinkers, and the family business has continued to carefully produce sake.

In 2022, Shinpei Tsuneyama will take over as the ninth head of the brewery, passing the baton from his mother, the eighth generation. He renewed the lineup of “Tsuneyama,” the brewery’s flagship brand. Based on the concept of “Koshiyama Wakamizu,” a term used to describe the natural beauty of Fukui Prefecture and its water, the brewery uses Miyamanishiki and Yamadanishiki sake rice grown by contract farmers in the Miyama area in the mountains of eastern Fukui City , Gohyakumangoku and Sakahomare, which were developed by Fukui Prefecture, and Fukui’s own proprietary yeast.

The series’ white labels are designed by Shogo Kizumino, a graphic designer who has worked on the “JAL SKY MUSEUN” and Lotte’s “ZERO” series. The white color of the label, which evokes the image of rice, is designed to be a bridge between rice and food, while the logo is reminiscent of the mountains and sea of Echizen.

The three main flavors are junmai dry “Cho,” junmai ginjo dry “Tobi,” and junmai daiginjo mellow dry “Kyoku. They are characterized by a dry, crisp taste that goes down the throat easily and harmonizes well not only with delicately flavored seafood, but also with today’s fatty meals. It combines the profound flavor of the mountains of Echizen with the fresh minerality and spiciness of the sea of Wakasa, resulting in a taste that is more than just light and refreshing.

Attention to detail to remove miscellaneous flavors

The sake is clear, transparent, and full of umami, with a great impact and sharpness. How is such sake made?

When you visit the Tsuneyama Brewery, you will notice that everything in the office and workshop is neat and tidy. Under the motto “Sake making starts with the environment,” the entire staff thoroughly cleans up every morning before work. The rice is carried by hand instead of using an air shooter, which is generally used to carry rice in a sake brewery. The sake is then transported by hand, for fear that the small amount of rice that remains will lead to a bad taste. In the pursuit of a clear, transparent flavor, we became concerned about areas that we thought could cause a tangy taste,” said Shinpei. By reviewing each step of the brewing process in detail, the brewery was able to produce a flavor that was closer to the ideal.

No stress on yeast during fermentation

The tanks used to brew sake were also carefully selected. In September, when the brewing process at Tsuneyama Brewery begins, the outside temperature can still exceed 30 degrees Celsius on some days. At the end of the brewing process, the tanks are cooled to add sweetness to the flavor. To prevent stress on the yeast, special tanks are used that are less affected by the temperature difference from the outside air. Shinpei says, “In order to deeply pursue the flavor, it was also important to select the tank itself.

In addition, the temperature in the brewery is strictly controlled, including ice temperature control after pressing and rapid heating and cooling during bottling, while sake retailers are also carefully selected for their ability to control temperatures.

Developed by his father, the previous generation, the flavor goes well with Fukui’s specialties.

Mr. Shimpei is dedicated to the dry taste of the famous sake “Tsuneyama” and continues to update it to suit the modern age. At the root of his efforts is his love for his father, who died in the middle of his career.

In the past, the Tsuneyama Shuzo brewery mainly produced an ordinary sake called “Hanejyu Masamune” for a long time. However, his father, Hideaki, the seventh generation, foresaw the coming of a new age of sake and introduced “Tsuneyama” as a new junmai sake in 1997. The sake was developed to suit the fresh seafood caught in Fukui’s seas, and is characterized by its elegant ginjo aroma, smooth and fresh mouthfeel, and crisp aftertaste. It was also well received as a perfect partner for ” oroshi soba, ” a specialty of Fukui, as it did not interfere with the delicate aroma of the soba and went well with the freshness of grated radish.

Several years later, however, Hideaki passed away suddenly at the age of 48, halfway through his quest to popularize “Tsuneyama. Shinpei was only 19 years old and a college student at the time, so his mother, Yukiko, succeeded him.

Mother, the 8th generation, established the Tsuneyama brand

First, Yukiko carefully selected sake dealers for a specific brand of “Tsuneyama” to maintain the quality of sake. She also researched sake rice and rice polishing ratios in search of the best sharpness to enhance the lineup of “Tsuneyama,” which is based on the concept of dryness. Normally, the sake strength of “6” is considered to be very dry, but the company has made a move toward dryness by producing “Super Dry,” a junmai daiginjo sake with a sake strength of around “8,” and “Tobikkiri Dry,” an ultra-harsh raw sake with a sake strength of around “21.

The key to making dry sake is to keep the yeast strong during the fermentation period without weakening it, and to strike a balance so as not to produce a cloying taste. This was achieved by the skill of the Nanbu Touji, who supported Hideaki.

Yukiko actively entered their sake in numerous sake competitions, including the ” Wineglass Delicious Sake Award ” to have it evaluated by a third party. The awards also increased their opportunities to be featured in the media. This led to branding and the creation of a taste that matched the modern diet, and the base of “Tsuneyama” was established as the name became well-known among young people and other sake novices.

The young 9th generation takes over the brewery in the new era of sake.

After graduating from university and working in sales at a major sake brewing company, Shinpei returned to his hometown in 2011 and joined the Tsuneyama Brewery. At that time, “Otters” and “Kajinin Kuheiji” were beginning to gain recognition in the global market, riding on the back of the Japanese food boom overseas. With the dawn of a new era of Japanese sake as a tailwind, he began brewing his own sake.

In his fourth year of brewing sake, he won the gold medal at the National New Sake Competition.

Although born into a family of brewers, Shinpei was a complete amateur as an actual sake brewer and did not major in agriculture at university. He was taught from the ground up by a veteran toji, who had worked with his father and mother in the sake brewing industry. I was under a lot of pressure to make sake somehow,” he says.

He did not try to be eccentric, but instead carefully learned the basics one by one, sometimes going to other breweries to learn from them. In his fourth year of sake brewing, the sake he produced won a gold medal at the National New Sake Competition.

Three years later, in 2018, the veteran toji who had supported the brewery for so long retired, and Shinpei became the brewing director. That year, the brewery won the Platinum Award, the highest award in the Junmai Daiginjo category, at Kura Master, a prestigious sake competition for food professionals held in France. The sake brewery won gold again in 2020 and 2021 at the same competition, and has since become the focus of attention both at home and abroad.

Sake brewery renovated into a “place of hospitality

While visiting wineries overseas, Shinpei was surprised to learn that most of them offer tours of the production process and wine tasting with detailed explanations. In Japan, there are still many breweries that do not even offer tours of their breweries.

Tsuneyama Brewery is the closest brewery to JR Fukui Station, so it is not uncommon for visitors from other prefectures to apply for tours or to visit the brewery. We will create a place to entertain such visitors. I thought that if we could present our products directly and add value, we could compete at a higher price than usual,” he said.

In 2018, Shinpei and his mother, the 8th generation, began renovating their brewery. They made use of the zelkova beams, which are over 10 meters long in the historic warehouse, and covered the second floor with plaster walls and cedar plank floors to create a multipurpose space that can be used for business meetings and tours. During the brewing season, the aroma of steaming sake rice rises from the barrels on the first floor, making the design more attractive to visitors.

The label design allows visitors to grasp the flavor image at a glance.

During the same period, we also focused on brushing up the labels and packaging, and from 2018 to 2020, we will be working with Hatooba Shoryu, a crest painter from Kyogen, known for designing the crest of the NOHGA HOTEL UENO hotel in Ueno, Tokyo, and his son and daughter, Yohji and Hatooba Shoryu. Yohji and his son were commissioned to create the branding for the company.

The design of the “Araiso,” a freshly pressed, slightly carbonated sake, features an auspicious sea bream jumping on a navy-gray background reminiscent of the Sea of Japan during the New Year’s holiday season. With its cool design, it attracted a lot of attention each time it was released.

Being loved by the local community is the key to winning.

Standing in the new brewery, where the smell of cedar wood still lingers, and looking at the new Tsuneyama lineup that he has created, Shinpei recalls his father, the seventh generation, who said, “Local sake must be loved by the local people. On the day of the opening of the Tsuneyama Brewery, many people from the Miyama area come to the brewery on a shared bus.

Recently, there has been a sake boom overseas, and more and more products that sell well in Japan are being sought after and shipped across the sea. But I believe that sake that sells well in Japan, sake that has been loved for a long time, is local sake that has cherished its hometown,” says Shinpei. It is the local people who will be the first to drink sake, learn about its qualities, and pass them on. It is the local people who will be the first to drink sake, learn about its qualities, and pass them on. This is where the future of sake lies.

The new Tsuneyama series is designed to enhance the taste of Fukui’s fish dishes and sushi. The ninth-generation brewer is looking to the future with eyes brimming with love for his hometown, saying, “I want to create a sake that has a strong presence so that people will know that this is Tsuneyama when they take a sip, and that they will be reminded of the scenery of Fukui when they drink it.

The post Tsuneyama Shuzo” continues to pursue further possibilities of dry sake while inheriting the spirit of its predecessors/Fukui City, Fukui Prefecture first appeared on NIHONMONO.

Amanatsu is a long-established restaurant that offers a lineup of products made from high-quality seafood, including “Echizen Tailored Shio Uni” (sea urchin).
Shio Uni,” with its rich flavor and concentrated aroma of the sea, has a reputation for being the best tasting sea urchin
.
You can enjoy the taste created by the commitment to the region of origin, careful handiwork that has remained unchanged for over 200 years,
and an inquisitive mind for flavor.

Amanatatsu, located in Fukui City in northern Fukui Prefecture, is said to be one of Japan’s top three sea urchin delicacies, along with karasumi (dried mullet roe) and konawata (sea urchin roe). Junichi Amano, the 11th generation owner of Amanotatsu, who has inherited the 200-year history of Amanotatsu, is striving to preserve the traditional taste while looking ahead to the next 200 years and conveying the charm of “Shio-Uni” to the next generation.

Deep Relationship with the Echizen Fukui Clan

The main store of Tentatsu is located in Katamachi, a busy shopping district in the center of Fukui City. The area is dotted with historical relics , including the ruins of Fukui Castle, Yohko-kan Garden, a villa of the Echizen Fukui feudal lord, and the ruins of Kitanosho Castle, the former residence of Katsuie Shibata.

Tentatsu” was founded in 1804 as a purveyor to the Fukui Domain, and the third generation of the family, Gohee Tennouya, created salted sea urchin (product name: “Shio-Uni”). It is said that this was inspired by an order from the feudal lord of the Echizen Fukui domain to develop a food that could be stored for a long time in case of an attack on the sea.

The third generation, under orders from the feudal lord, apparently spent many days walking along the coast from Mikuni Port to Tsuruga Port in the northwestern part of Fukui Prefecture, searching for ingredients and came upon sea urchin, which had been caught in abundance since that time. He then invented the “salting method,” which is the production method for “shio uni” (sea urchin). It is said that he taught this method to fishermen and divers along the Echizen coast, who collected the sea urchin and presented it to the clan as a tribute. Because it was made on the Echizen coast, Shio-uni was also called Echizen-undan (sea urchin),” says Amano.

As time passed, the seventh generation Tenno-ya Tatsukichi was called “Tentatsu,” an abbreviation of the name of the feudal lord Matsudaira Harutake, who was considered one of the Four Wise Generals at the end of the Edo period. Because of this close relationship with the Matsudaira family, the wrapping paper for “Shio Uni” uses a map of the ruins of Fukui Castle from the Edo period as a motif.

Prepared entirely by hand

Shio Uni” is made by sprinkling salt on the ovaries of Buffoon sea urchins, draining their water, and then letting them mature to a mild flavor. Early in the morning, the divers catch the sea urchins, crack open the 2-3 cm shells, and take out the sea urchins so as not to damage their contents. The shells are then placed in the abalone shells and carefully rinsed in salt water.

The sea urchins are then drained and placed on a coarse-mesh mat. The sea urchins are then covered with salt, turning them one by one with chopsticks to get the right “saltiness”. The sea urchin is then placed on a coarse sesame mat, and each sea urchin is turned over one by one with chopsticks and sprinkled with salt to the right “saltiness”.

The careful preparation of the sea urchin by hand and the scarcity of more than 100 pieces of sea urchin required to make 100 grams of “Shio Un i “ are the reasons why it is called the highest quality sea urchin.

A special gift in a paulownia wood box

It is said that “Shio-uni” was invented as a preservative food for the “ikusa” (a kind of warship). It is said that “even though it was a preserved food, since it was to be presented to the lord, he must have sought novelty and deliciousness. I think the fruit of these efforts was ‘shio uni’ (sea urchin),” Amano surmises. As the peace of Edo continued, “shio uni” became not only a preserved food but also a delicacy representative of the Fukui clan. Because it lasted for a long time, it was also valued as a gift, and the feudal lord allowed it to be placed in a paulownia box.

The tradition of packing in paulownia boxes, which enhanced the value of the product as a gift in the Edo period, has been handed down to the present day. Along with plastic containers with high preservation qualities, and pottery and lacquered containers, “Shio-Uni” in a paulownia box still retains its special value as a gift for a loved one.

Looking ahead to the next 200 years

The “history” that has continued since the Edo period has enhanced the value of the “Shio Uni” brand. As the heir to this history, the current owner, Mr. Amano, has a growing sense of urgency. The reason is that the catch of the raw material, the Buffoon sea urchin, has been decreasing nationwide. The catch from Fukui Prefecture has dropped to one-tenth of its peak.

In recent years, “Tentatsu” has been visiting all over Japan to cultivate production areas other than its home prefecture of Fukui, such as Tottori and Nagasaki. The company also purchases “shio uni” produced not only in Japan but also in overseas regions. All of them are made from buffoon sea urchins.

Amano says, “We want to continue to use the small, rich-tasting buff sea urchin from the Echizen coast for our ‘Shio Uni,’ which is made from the same sea urchin. The “sweetness” unique to buff sea urchin is the reason why he insists on using buff sea urchin. I have also tried purple sea urchin and red sea urchin. In my opinion, the purple sea urchin is not as sweet as the red sea urchin. The soft sweetness of the Buffoon sea urchin fills the mouth. He also thinks that the diversity of the sea urchin’s region of origin is an attractive feature of the product. Red sea urchins come from a limited number of regions. Buffoon sea urchins come from a wide variety of regions, so you can enjoy different flavors in each region.

The reason why Amano makes his “Shio-Uni” in the places where they are caught, and why Amano buys it from them, is because he wants to respect the food culture unique to the region.

In order to protect the marine resource of the buffoon sea urchin, Mr. Amano is participating in an effort to fully cultivate the buffoon sea urchin with the Fukui Prefectural Fisheries Experiment Station, university professors researching sea urchin cultivation, and fishermen.

Blending sea urchins to determine their maturity

The sea urchins collected at Tentatsu are left to mature at low temperatures for one, two, and three years. The staff, who are called “blenders” at Tentatsu, blend the sea urchin to the optimum blend after determining the state of maturity of each sea urchin. Shio uni (sea urchin) from Hokkaido, Tottori, and Nagasaki is used. The blended sea urchin becomes Ten-Tatsu’s signature product , Echizen-Shite Shio Uni. This aging and blending technique is the source of the delicious taste.

Mr. Amano is confident in saying that this is the best time to taste it.

A research conducted jointly by the Fukui Prefectural Food Processing Research Institute and Tentatsu revealed that the bitterness component of Shio Uni is reduced by aging, and the umami and sweetness of the sea urchin are relatively enhanced. What we had known from experience was now scientifically proven.

Conveying Flavor by Production Area

In October 2022, the company began selling “Shio Uni” according to region of production as a new trial. Only at the main Amanatatsu store, customers can purchase shio uni from Oshima Beach in Fukui, Pohang in Korea, and Funadomari in Hokkaido. Because of the limited number of sea urchins available, they are not sold at branches or via the Internet.

This is an attempt to convey the fact that sea urchins are omnivorous and their taste varies depending on the sea in which they are grown. For example, sea urchins from Fukui are characterized by their rich flavor and sweetness, with a moderate saltiness in the aftertaste. The Korean product has a mellow taste with an aroma of the seashore. Hokkaido produce has a moderately bitter and salty taste.

In 2011, the company revived “dried sea urchin,” which once ceased to exist in the early Showa period. Unlike “Shio-Uni,” which is made by pickling sea urchin in salt water, “Dried Sea Urchin” is made by heating sea urchin in salt water and then drying it. The company has also expanded product variations based on “Shio-Uni. Powdered Sea Urchin” is a luxurious sprinkling of “Echizen Tailored Shio Uni” that has been dried and powdered. Undan Awase” combines the sauce made from “Shio Uni” with natural abalone, snow crab, sweet shrimp, and other ingredients.

Fusion of tradition and modernity

The company is also beginning to fuse the traditional Japanese ingredient “shio uni” with Western cuisine. They have developed Western-style products such as “Sea Urchin Bisque,” which uses sea urchin in bisque, a French soup, and “Sea Urchin Gratin. Recently, they have added a new product, “Unotan Ahijo,” in which sea urchin is simmered in olive oil and garlic.

Shio Uni has long been loved as a snack with sake, but it is also excellent on rice. We would like to propose ways to eat it and offer variations in cooking so that people, especially the younger generation, who are unfamiliar with shio uni will discover its deliciousness,” says Amano.

We have also asked chefs from Michelin-starred restaurants to help us explore the possibilities of Shio Uni as an ingredient. At a collaboration dinner between famous chefs from Tokyo and Fukui, a specialty dish was served with caviar and “Shio Uni”.

Amano continues to update its products to pass on its ancient traditions to the future, and in the fall of 2022, a new factory with thorough temperature control and hygiene management will be opened. At the new factory, Mr. Amano talks about his dream. I want to continue the 200-year history of Amanatatsu for the next 200 years. I want to continue the 200-year history of Amano’s sea urchins and deliver to the world the joy that can only be experienced at Shio Uni.

In the eyes of the 11th generation owner, I see a future in which the Fukui-born food culture, which has been passed down through a series of new changes, will attract the attention of the world.

People’s tastes and preferences change with the times, and although Shio Uni has been around for more than 200 years, Amano aims to create the most delicious taste of each era. We want our customers to simply enjoy our delicious sea urchins. Our spirit will never change, and we will continue to pursue the taste of our local delicacy in gratitude to our hometown, Fukui.

The post Echizen-Shio Uni”, the highest quality sea urchin produced by “Tentatsu” with 200 years of history / Fukui City, Fukui Prefecture, Japan first appeared on NIHONMONO.