A flapping snapper slides in a stream of fresh seawater across the auction stand towards open arms. The auctioneer raps a hand gaff and in an instant a deal is struck. In one smooth stroke the fish is ushered back into a holding tank. The Akashi Ura brand of fish originates at a fishing port run on a simple premise, auction live fish. Let its physique, color, and vitality determine its value. Let quality, not quantity drive profits and thereby foster a correlation between the ecosystems of nature and man where an incumbent devotion to quality reigns.
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On the fifteenth night, when the air is clear, the moon is at its most beautiful. Shrines and temples hold moon viewing rites and banquets, and the time comes for the annual harvest festival—an important event for which we make offerings to the moon and thank the gods for a plentiful crop. We spend our days delighting in the harvest’s many fruits; we want to eat with the feeling of gratitude. At Wakuden this month, we await you with a bowl of soft-shelled turtle, sea bream steamed with soba seeds, and more.
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Misako Hahsida sits on a stool in the shade scrubbing a newly fashioned bamboo tokkuri in her lap. Rinsed clean, she holds the vessel for sake at arm’s length. The elegant sweep of a fine edge runs on a slight diagonal at each node tracing the bamboo’s circumference. It glistens, an emerald green. Aodake, fresh bamboo, carries the weight of water, saturated and crisp. It soothes the mind like a cool drink on a summer’s day.
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The fierce heat continues. Local people are out on Kyoto’s streets trying to beat the heat by sprinkling water in front of their homes. August in Kyoto also means the Gozan no Okuribi, or Daimonji, a traditional Buddhist rite marking the end of the Obon festival. Five giant bonfires are lit on the mountains surrounding the city, and we press our hands together in prayer to send off the spirits of deceased family members. In the deep darkness that falls after the fires go out, we bid summer farewell and feel the first taste of autumn. This month at Wakuden you can enjoy such dishes as “conger eel and jade eggplant” and “fig with white miso bean paste.”
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It’s that time of year when the mountains turn deep shades of green.
In Kyoto, on a day with no rainy season in sight, we held a cooking event centered on dashi, or soup stock.
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High in the hills of the Tango Peninsula, the birthplace of Wakuden, terraced paddies climb as far as the mountainous landscape will allow. In a large forest above them wild boars and deer roam and a waterfall feeds cold, clear water into the stream that floods these fields.Hundreds of tadpoles skitter about in the shallow water under a high July sky.
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