Noodles
Hoto
Yamanashi's miso-simmered flat noodles, tied to a warlord's legend
The leading theory traces the dish to 'hakutaku,' a Chinese noodle dish said to have reached Japan in the Nara or Heian period, its name later shifting to 'hoto.' Legend holds that the warlord Takeda Shingen favored it as army-camp food, giving it the nickname 'Takeda soup,' though no single account of its origin or exact era is settled. Raw noodles and seasonal vegetables are simmered together in a miso broth.
- Origin: Yamanashi
- About 110 km west of Tokyo
Lineage
What it's made of
A one-pot dish of wide, flat raw noodles, kabocha squash and other seasonal vegetables, napa cabbage and fried tofu, all in a miso broth. Because the noodles go in unboiled, their starch dissolves straight into the broth, thickening it and folding into the miso's sweetness. The kabocha breaks down as it simmers, sending a rich sweetness through the whole pot, so each spoonful arrives thick and unified rather than broth and solids apart.
How it's made
Raw noodles, vegetables, and miso all go into one simmering pot with no pre-boiling, so the whole dish comes together and finishes at once. The kabocha slowly collapses into the broth, skin, seeds and all, while starch washed off the noodles thickens the liquid until noodles and broth stop separating. It is brought to the table still in its clay pot, staying hot even as it is ladled out.
Why it took this shape
The leading theory traces hoto to 'hakutaku,' a Chinese noodle dish said to have reached Japan around the Nara or Heian period; legend also credits the warlord Takeda Shingen with favoring it as army-camp food, nicknamed 'Takeda soup,' though neither account is settled. In a cold, land-locked basin where wheat and other grains grew more readily than rice, a stew that cooks vegetables and noodles in one pot and stays hot as it is served reads as a direct answer to the cold.
Before you go
- How to read a ticket machineShops that use a ticket machine (shokken-ki) often place their most popular items in a similar spot.
- Foods to look for in summerA guide to foods often seen in Japan around summer — eel on the Day of the Ox, hiyashi chuka, somen, shaved ice, edamame with beer, and hamo — with rough pointers for finding them.
- What staff say, and how to respondCommon set phrases you'll hear at restaurants, with what they mean and what to do when you hear them. You don't need to memorize them — just recognizing them is enough.
Dishes in the same style
- Abura SobaNo broth is poured at all — noodles are tossed in a soy-and-sesame-oil tare pooled at the bottom of the bowl, said to have started at shops in the Musashino area in the late 1950s, with vinegar and chili oil stirred in partway through.
- Abura ZomenPork and somen are fried together with a splash of broth, the oil and stock emulsifying into a silky coat on the noodles. Just how somen took root in wheat-free Amami isn't clear, but the dish is a fixture whenever people gather, not least for the August Dance festival.
Ingredients and dishes from this land
Related lineage
- OkkirikomiThe dish grew out of Gunma's tradition of silk farming and wheat-flour cooking. Wide, flat noodles go straight into the pot without pre-boiling, simmered together with vegetables, and the flour that washes off them thickens the broth as it cooks. It is one of the dishes named to the agriculture ministry's list of 100 notable regional foods.
- MimiSquares of wheat dough are pinched at two corners into a triangle and simmered in miso with vegetables — a dish from the Totani area of Fujikawa town. Its shape, likened to a winnowing basket, is said to symbolize scooping up good fortune, and it is offered to the New Year's deity.
- OzaraNoodles cut thinner than hoto are boiled, rinsed cold, then dipped into a warm soy-based broth — Yamanashi's answer to its basin summers. Even hoto specialty shops are said to swap it in during the hottest months.
Derived style
- Azuki HotoHoto noodles, cut thicker than usual, are simmered in sweet azuki bean soup in place of mochi — a festival food in Yamanashi. The summer festival at Miwa Shrine in Hokuto city's Wakamiko area is nicknamed the 'hoto festival', and azuki's red color is said to ward off misfortune.
- Urajiro ManjuYoung leaves of the thistle-like oyamabokuchi plant are kneaded into the dough around a sweet bean filling — a confection from the Yamato area of Koshu city, said to have begun when fiber from the same leaf, once used as a binder for hoto noodles, was worked into a bun instead.
- Inobuta NabeMeat from 'inobuta', a cross between wild boar and domestic sow, is simmered with vegetables and mushrooms in a sesame-miso broth — a hot pot from the Mitomi area, said to lack any gamey edge and carry a sweet richness in its fat, its breeding encouraged after the war on a base of local hunting culture.
Contrast
- Kawara SobaA local tale that Satsuma soldiers grilled wild greens and meat on roof tiles during the 1877 Satsuma Rebellion inspired an innkeeper at Kawatana hot spring to turn the idea into a dish around 1962. Green tea noodles, beef, and shredded egg are arranged on a heated roof tile and eaten with condiments and a dipping sauce.
- Tanabata HotoWide wheat noodles, kneaded and cut by hand then boiled, are tossed sweet with red bean paste, roasted soybean flour, or sesame — a Star Festival dish of the Matsumoto area, offered alongside paper Tanabata dolls on the delayed date of August 7, distinct from the savory miso hoto eaten as a soup elsewhere.
- NiboutoFrom Fukaya, Saitama: a wide, flat raw noodle simmered straight into the pot without pre-boiling. The flour that washes off thickens the broth, and unlike Yamanashi's hoto, the seasoning here runs soy-based.
Also from Yamanashi
- Akebono Daizu no EdamameThe 'akebono' soybean, said to be 1.6 times the size of an ordinary bean, is picked young and salt-boiled — an edamame from the Akebono area of Minobu town. Grown since the Meiji era but resistant to mechanization, aging growers have made it scarce enough to be called a 'phantom bean'.
- Amanatto no OsekihanMade without azuki or cowpea beans, glutinous rice is dyed red with food coloring and mixed with candied sweet beans — a Yamanashi take on celebratory red rice, sweet-salty with a sprinkle of sesame salt. A similarly sweet red rice is said to exist far away in Hokkaido and parts of Tohoku.
- AnbinSweet potato and wheat flour are kneaded with hot water, wrapped around bean paste, slapped flat, and steamed — a sweet from the Kyonan region. Its name is said to come from the slapping motion, revived in Ichikawamisato town's Rokugo area after a local school's closure sparked a heritage-food effort.
- Awabi no NigaiAbalone from Suruga Bay was soy-sauce-marinated and hauled in barrels by horse, the jostling and body heat said to have worked the flavor deep in — a specialty from landlocked Kofu. Sliced thin and paired with its liver, shiso, and cucumber, it endures as a taste of the sea inland.
- Hirauchi TanmenA salt-based tanmen from Kofu, Yamanashi, built on wide, flat noodles said to feel almost like fettuccine. Bean sprouts, pork, and napa cabbage pile on top for a vegetable-heavy bowl carried on today by several shops around the prefecture.