Murakami City in Niigata Prefecture is a salmon town that has lived together with salmon. The “Sennen Salmon Kikkawa” has been making salmon dishes that have been passed down through the generations in Murakami.
There are more than 100 salmon dishes that have been created over the millennium of Murakami’s salmon history.
We are passing on the culinary culture of Murakami to the present day through salmon dishes made with fermentation and aging techniques that take full advantage of the climate of Murakami City and the time and effort that goes into making them.

Salmon Culture Preserved by Murakami’s “Sennen Salmon Kikkawa

 Murakami City, located in the northernmost part of Niigata Prefecture and facing the Sea of Japan, has a history of delivering salmon as tax to the Imperial Court in Kyoto during the Heian period. Salmon were often caught and during the Edo period, salmon fishing was an important source of income for the Murakami clan. In the latter part of the Edo period, the fishing season gradually became poor, and the clan’s finances began to run out. Then, Buheiji Aoto, a samurai of the clan, noticed the “recurring nature” of salmon and created an environment for propagation, which led to the world’s first successful natural hatching and propagation of salmon. The town once again became prosperous, and even in years when the rice harvest was poor, a good catch of salmon helped the people. This is why the people of Murakami still respect salmon and treat it with great care. In Murakami, salmon is the only fish, not any other fish.

Even today, salmon runs up the Miomotegawa River that runs through the center of town, and the salmon culture has been carefully passed down through the millennia. The first company in Murakami to commercialize this traditional salmon dish was Sennen Salmon Kikkawa, which was founded in 1626 as a rice wholesaler. In the postwar period of the 1950s, when Murakami’s salmon cuisine was in decline, the company decided that it must not let Murakami’s salmon culture die out, and began producing and selling salmon dishes.

Product creation focusing on “natural” products

More than 1,000 salted salmon are hung from the ceiling beams in the machiya-style store built in the Meiji period. The sight is breathtaking. The process is simple: salt the fish and then dry it. This simple method has never changed. No food additives such as preservatives, chemical seasonings, or yeast extracts are used.

The “Shinmaki Salmon,” a similarly well-known salted salmon, is made to preserve the flavor of freshly caught salmon for a long period of time, while Murakami’s salted salmon is subjected to the cold northwest wind for one month to allow the enzymes in the salmon to break down the proteins and produce amino acids as a catalyst with the salt, giving it a special flavor unique to Murakami. This gives the salmon a special flavor unique to Murakami. The people of Murakami have always cherished and savored salmon. Looking up at the hanging salmon, it is clear that salmon is at the center of people’s lives. In this family, the salmon, not the people, are the most important,” says 15th generation owner Masatsugu Yoshikawa. Everyone in town makes it in their own homes, and each father brags to the other about how good it is. In Kikkawa, preparation begins in mid-November when a cold northwesterly wind blows and the temperature drops below 10 degrees Celsius. When you feel the clean, dignified wind on your skin, that’s when it’s time to start.

The first thing I do is to bow my palms in gratitude to the salmon in front of me. The salmon is carefully selected and wild-caught domestic male salmon. After about five days, the salmon are washed under running water and dried for three to four weeks. The Murakami style is to hang the salmon with the head down by attaching a string to the base of the tail fin, as it would be unbearable to put a string on the head of the salmon, which is a precious gift from Murakami. Mr. Yoshikawa is particular about the shape of the dried fish, even the fins are held up to give it a “manly” appearance. The enzymes work to produce a unique flavor. It is a deep flavor that can only be expressed by the wind that blows in Murakami. While drying the salmon, the artisans watch over the salmon as if they were their own children.

Appreciate everything about salmon and eat it.

The most popular recipe that everyone imagines using salmon is grilled salmon served with hot white rice. Salt-baked salmon is also a great accompaniment to rice, and of course, if you lightly grill the fillet, you can enjoy the skin as well. It is delicious freshly grilled, but the charm of salted salmon is that it can be enjoyed even after it has cooled down.

But that is not all there is to Murakami’s salmon cuisine. Because of their respect for the salmon, they carefully eat every part of the salmon, from the entrails and bones to the head and gills. As a result, more than a hundred different salmon dishes have been created. Inside Kikkawa’s restaurant, you will find a wide variety of salmon dishes. In addition to salted salmon fillets, grilled salmon marinated in secret broth and soy sauce, cured salmon ham cured slowly at low temperature, and harako (roe) marinated in soy sauce using the best large roe are all regular favorites. Salmon with sake is a great snack to accompany alcoholic drinks. There is a unique culture of celebrating a boy turning 5 years old by preparing a salmon dish at home when he wears his hakama. It is said that this is a way of saying, “Come back strong and strong,” just like the salmon. In Murakami, ” Salmon rice sushi” is an important New Year’s dish, and Kikkawa has been making its own koji since the Edo period. The pride of Kikkawa, which used to be a sake brewer, is also reflected in its desire to preserve Murakami’s important food culture.

Murakami’s respect for salmon has led to the development of an unparalleled salmon food culture. Mr. Yoshikawa says, ” The important thing is to put love into it. It is made by fermentation and ripening, so by watching over the changes in nature, and taking the time and effort to make it with love, you can create a delicious product, ” he says, looking up at the hanging salted salmon and narrowing his eyes. The supreme taste passed down through a thousand years of history will continue to be passed down as a part of the town’s living food culture for years to come.

First, we choose the best. We do not use any food additives, but rather we use human hands and spend a lot of time in nature to produce the “real thing”. We will continue to pursue the “one and only best taste” that only we can make.

The post Traditional culture of Echigo Murakami, lovingly produced “Sennen Salmon Kikkawa” salted salmon / Murakami City, Niigata Prefecture first appeared on NIHONMONO.

Kaga Yuzen depicting flowers, birds, wind, and the moon

The Maeda family of the Kaga domain, headed by the warlord Maeda Toshiie, put their wealth of one million koku into the development of culture. The third lord, Toshitsune, established an artisan workshop in the castle and invited instructors from Kyoto and Edo to train craftsmen in metalworking, lacquerware, and other crafts for the lord.

Kaga Yuzen is said to have begun in the mid-Edo period when painter Miyazaki Yuzenzai, who is considered the founder of Kyoto Yuzen, passed on his techniques.Ichiro Kakimoto, a Kaga Yuzen artist, had his workshop in a residential area close to Kanazawa Castle and Kenrokuen Garden, which still retain the atmosphere of Kaga Hyakumangoku.The master of Kaga Yuzen is nature.While Kyoto yuzen has many patterns, Kaga yuzen is characterized by depicting flowers, birds, wind, and the moon.Every day, I go out for a walk around Kenrokuen Garden and make sketches.If I do not draw flowers and plants growing on the ground, they will not be real.Flowers from a flower shop are not enough.When I was young, I was attracted to chrysanthemums, peonies, and other splendid flowers, but these days I am more interested in nameless weeds.I am wondering if I can depict the hidden strength and beauty of weeds in yuzen,” says Kakimoto.

One-of-a-kind kimonos that show the individuality of the artist

The visiting kimono hanging in Ms. Kakimoto’s work space is a piece that truly evokes the beauty of flowers, birds, wind, and the moon.The brightly shining half-moon and colorful plants.It is as if we are looking at a highly realistic painting rather than a kimono pattern.
The work depicts not only the beauty of the appearance, but also the life that exists in the scene.One of the techniques of Kaga Yuzen is called “Mushigui (insect-eaten),” which means to express the marks on the leaves of plants as if they have been eaten by insects.When I paint the nature in front of me every day, I notice the changes that occur there.I am glad to be born in a country with four seasons,” says Kakimoto.
Mr. Kakimoto studied under Uzan Kimura, a living national treasure of yuzen who was active from the Taisho to Showa periods, and became an independent Kaga yuzen artist in 1967.His delicate yet bold style has been highly acclaimed and he has won numerous awards, and even now, at over 80 years of age, he is still active at the forefront of the art world.
In Kyo Yuzen, the person who decides on the design, the person who draws the pattern, and the person who applies the colors are all separate, but in Kaga Yuzen, everything is done by one person,” he said.In Kaga Yuzen, however, everything is done by one person.He also decides the combination of colors by himself.The more delicate the pattern, the more delicate the dyeing process, and blending the colors within a single petal to create a more three-dimensional beauty is a characteristic of Kaga Yuzen.
When I look at the work of my master, Kimura Uzan, the colors sometimes overflow, but this gives me a sense of the life force of the plant.I am also aiming for that realm, but I am still in training,” says Kakimoto.
Over 60 years and still in training.The world of crafts, not limited to Kaga Yuzen, is endlessly deep.

The post Ichiro Kakimoto, “Master of Kaga Yuzen” representing traditional culture / Kanazawa City, Ishikawa Prefecture first appeared on NIHONMONO.

Kongo-gumi, the oldest construction company in Japan

Kongo Gumi, located in Tennoji Ward, Osaka City, is a construction company specializing in temple carpentry that builds and restores shrines and temples throughout Japan. The history of the company began with the Kongo Construction Department in Shitennoji Temple. It is the oldest existing construction company in the world.
The name “XX-gumi” is sometimes misunderstood (laughs), but Kongo Gumi is a shrine and temple construction company that owns eight temple carpenters called “Takumikai. Kiuchi Gumi, which I lead, is one of them. It is said that there are currently 200 to 300 companies in Japan that contract temple carpentry work, and about 110 of them work for the eight groups of the Kongo-gumi,” said Shigeo Kinouchi, a master carpenter of the Kinouchi group.
Kongo-gumi’s temple carpenters travel to shrines and temples throughout Japan to build and restore them. The main difference between ordinary carpenters and temple carpenters is that carpenters build “houses for people to live in,” while temple carpenters build “houses for gods and Buddha to enter.

The buildings we build are objects of worship, and it is not unusual for them to remain for 200 or 300 years. It is the job of the miya carpenter to use traditional techniques to create sturdy buildings that will not be defeated by any natural disasters. For example, we do not use metal nails for structural materials. For example, we do not use metal nails for structural materials because they rust and the wood rots from there,” says Kiuchi.

How advanced are the techniques of miya-daiku (temple carpenters)? This was immediately apparent when I saw Mr. Kiuchi planing the wood. He runs the plane lightly over a square piece of wood with a familiar plane in his hand. The shavings that came out of the plane were so thin you could see through them.

The Craftsmanship of a Palace Carpenter

The standard for plane shavings is 0.1 mm or less. Today, I’m not in good shape, so I’d say it’s about 0.07 mm (laughs). Some of our carpenters can plane as thin as 0.03 or 0.02 mm,” Kiuchi said.
Nakata also tried his hand with a plane. Nakata’s plane shavings were thicker and the thickness was not consistent, even though he was using the same tool in the same way.
Nakata said, “You can’t use too much force, and you can’t use too little force either. You have to pull with a certain amount of force all at once, but it’s very difficult.
Planing is one of the skills of a master carpenter, but it is not just a matter of being able to plane thinly and evenly. For example, compared to machine-finished floors, floors finished by miya carpenters are more resistant to water and dust and retain their beautiful wood texture even after 20 or 30 years. Miya carpenters have a number of such techniques, which have been passed down from generation to generation.

Inside the processing center, a model of a 2.5-meter-high tower had already been assembled. A scaled-down version of the model was made by precisely calculating each pillar and the angle of the roof’s warp, and the work process and durability were checked. This kind of meticulous craftsmanship has continued since the time of Prince Shotoku. These craftsmen are preserving Japanese architecture and culture.

The post Kongo-gumi,” a technique of palace carpentry inherited from the Asuka Period / Osaka City, Osaka Prefecture first appeared on NIHONMONO.