Ozoni is interesting! Ozoni researcher Hiroko Kasuya and Ozoni Festival
What kind of ozōni do you eat in your household?
Our ozoni is made with chicken stock and includes daikon and carrot slices. The rice cakes are grilled until lightly browned and then soaked in the stock.
I have been familiar with this taste since I was a child and thought, "This is what ozōni is all about!" However, my concept was quickly overturned at the Ozoni Festival held in Kamakura.
There I encountered a variety of ozoni I had never seen before, including oyster ozoni, sweet tofu dessert-like ozoni, and even chawanmushi with mochi inside!
As I stood there in amazement at the wide variety of ozōni on offer, Hiroko Kasuya, representative of Ozoni-yasan Co., Ltd., one of the organizers and an ozōni researcher, told me the following:
"(Ozoni) is different even within the same city or town. All over Japan, households think that their ozoni is normal. Even though everyone knows that it differs from household to household, there are cases where it is completely different."
Ozoni reveals the history, culture, and daily life of the region. We spoke to Kasuya about his passion for ozoni and the appeal of this food culture.
Kasuya's interest in ozōni began when she was in junior high school and moved to Joetsu City, Niigata Prefecture, due to her father's job transfer. Until then, the "normal" ozōni for her was either clear soup with oysters or the ozōni made by her mother, who is from Kagawa Prefecture, with white miso and sweet bean paste mochi. However, when she was invited to a friend's house for New Year's, she was surprised to be treated to a brown ozōni filled with plenty of bracken and radish. She learned that the "normal" ozōni varies from region to region and from household to household.
Kasuya was never able to forget the impact she felt even after she entered the workforce. She was busy working as a consultant for small and medium-sized enterprises, but in 2009 she enrolled in the Japan Women's University of Nutrition, where she studied nutrition and began interviewing people about zoni. She has been based in Kyushu since two years ago.
"Right now I'm walking around Kyushu picking up old ladies (laughs). I go around asking 'Excuse me' here and there. You really have to do that to understand the ozōni of each region. I think there are many things that are 'normal' for each person.
In Tokyo, "Natori Zouni" is made with cabbage and chicken. So it's komatsuna and chicken, but in places like Atsugi and Hadano in Kanagawa, it changes to daikon radish, taro, green laver, and bonito flakes. In areas where fish is caught, they don't necessarily use fish, and they use root vegetables like daikon radish and taro, placing value on "having your feet on the ground," which is interesting.
I grew up in Kanagawa Prefecture, but our family's ozoni doesn't contain green laver or bonito flakes. What is "normal" to me is no longer "normal" if you go a little further away from the prefecture.
For example, even just looking at the shape of mochi rice cakes, various stories can be seen. I have seen on television that Sekigahara was the turning point as to whether mochi shapes should be round or square. Sekigahara was a turning point for various food cultures, and it is generally believed that square mochi was used east of Sekigahara and round mochi was used west of the city. This is because when the Edo Shogunate was born and the population of Edo increased, mass production of mochi became necessary, so the production method of stretching the pounded mochi and cutting it in one go became mainstream.
However, in some areas of Kagoshima, square mochi is used. It is said that this originated when the Shimazu clan, who stayed in Edo for a long time, brought square mochi back to Kagoshima. Various histories mix together and blend with local culture, creating ozōni that is unique to each region and each household.
Even within a single region, there are such huge differences, so it seems a shame that there are so few opportunities to eat ozoni from other regions. For me, ozoni is something we eat at home during New Year's, and I have had very few opportunities to eat it outside of that time. That's why everyone thinks that their own ozoni is the "normal" and common one.
So I asked Kasuya, "Is there any opportunity to eat ozōni other than at New Year's?"
"I think Asakura City's 'steamed zoni' is a good model case, and in fact, with the help of the tourism association, there are about 10 restaurants in the area that serve steamed zoni all year round. It's becoming a local specialty dish. When that happens, people who travel to the area can learn about the culture behind it. I think it's because it's home cooking that it's so unique. It's not the culture of the chef, but in the confines of the home. I think that's why it's been able to remain loosely like the old days. I hope that it will become possible to eat it when you travel around the country like this."
Because it is not served in restaurants, foreign tourists are unaware of its existence. I want to make it possible for such foreigners to eat it. Mr. Kasuya's desire to promote and protect Japanese culture through ozoni is apparent.
With a bright smile on his face, Kasuya spoke about his future plans:
"Starting this year, I'm thinking of focusing on food education, or more precisely, on activities to make new friends. Rather than just trying to pick up grandmas by myself, I want to create a fun system where local people themselves can have their stories heard by local grandmas."
The story of how this ozoni became popular in this region is often known by grandmothers over 90 years old who know the culture before gas became widespread. One person cannot travel around the country in detail. Therefore, he told us his desire to cooperate with local people and pass on knowledge and information about the food culture of ozoni to the next generation.
The First Ozoni Festival, which Kasuya helped plan, was a huge success, and by the time I arrived, two of the six varieties had already sold out.
lineup:
① Hokkaido "Chicken broth zouni"
② Niigata Prefecture "Shibata Zouni"
3. Ibaraki Prefecture "Hitachiota Zouni"
④ Nara Prefecture "Kinako Zouni"
⑤ Hiroshima Prefecture "Oyster Zouni"
⑥ Fukuoka Prefecture "Asakura Steamed Zouni"
Each one was delicious, with different flavors, broths, ingredients, and even the shape and hardness of the mochi. As Mr. Kasuya says, being able to enjoy zoni while traveling will surely add even more fun to your trip.
And if there is a second event, I would definitely like to attend again.
Rubbing my stomach, bloated from all the zoni, I decided that when I got home I would ask my grandmother for the recipe for our family's zoni.
