Azuki Zoni

Izumo's azuki zoni simmers red beans lightly sweetened and adds round mochi rice cakes, resembling zenzai or shiruko sweet bean soup in appearance but noticeably lighter in sweetness by comparison. In some areas, families eat a clear "sumashi zoni" with rock seaweed on New Year's Day, then switch to this red bean version from the second day of the New Year onward. Because a single azuki pod yields many beans, the dish is also said to carry a wish for a family's descendants to flourish.

Red beans are added to a pot filled generously with water and simmered slowly over low heat. Once the beans have softened to the point of nearly bursting, sugar is added to taste, and a little salt sometimes rounds out the seasoning. Some households add dashi stock while simmering the beans, and sugar is sometimes added again once the soup is served, to individual taste. The mochi is round, as in the clear zoni, and boiling it separately from the soup keeps it from turning too soft to eat comfortably.

In the old lunar calendar, the tenth month is known in Izumo as the month when deities from across Japan gather, and at a ritual held during that time called Kamiari-sai, a dish called "jinzai mochi" said to resemble this red bean zoni was served — one account traces the word "zenzai" itself back to that name. Azuki zoni is said to have traditionally been made with the year's first-drawn water, ladled by the household head on New Year's morning, and offered in the same bowl without changing it for the first three days of the year, a practice that still carries a strong sense of ritual offering.