Noodles ── Ramen
Anyoji Ramen
miso ramen built on the root miso of Shinshu
Saku's miso ramen built around Anyoji miso, held to be the root of Shinshu miso.
- Origin: Nagano Saku
- Miso
- About 130 km northwest of Tokyo
What it's made of
Behind the miso's depth sits a rustic sweetness where you can still feel the grain of the soybeans. The tare runs on Anyoji miso, brewed by a miso maker in the Anyoji district of Saku that traces back to the Edo period. Aged longer than most miso, it's said to lose its salty edge and gain a rounder, deeper flavor. Noodles and toppings are left to each shop's judgment, and member shops across the city each add their own touch, so the miso itself is what gives the bowl its character.
How it's made
Each shop builds its tare around Anyoji miso, then works in its own ratio, garlic, chili, or aromatic oil. There's no fixed rule for the noodles or the rest of the bowl — the only condition is using this long-aged miso, so bowls built on the same base can still look quite different from shop to shop.
Why it took this shape
One story traces the miso itself back to the Kamakura era, when the monk Kakushin, who founded Anyoji temple here, is said to have learned miso-making in China and brought the technique home, spreading it to various regions — making Saku one of the places held to be the root of Shinshu miso. The local miso brewery kept that craft alive for centuries, and the chamber of commerce and local ramen shop owners later teamed up to rebuild it into a bowl of ramen.
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.
- Cash-only shops are commonEspecially at ramen shops, it's common to find places that only accept cash — often through a ticket machine.
- 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.
Dishes in the same style
- Sakekasu Miso RamenA winter-only ramen from Ageo City, where sake lees from a long-running local brewery are worked into a Chinese restaurant's miso broth. The lees' depth and aroma layer over the miso's savoriness, leaving a mellow finish that warms the body in the cold months.
- Akayu Karamiso RamenMiso ramen with a knob of chili miso in the center, dissolved gradually to shift the flavor.
Ingredients and dishes from this land
Contrast
- Miso Curry Milk RamenAomori City's famous mash-up of miso, curry and milk — often crowned with butter.
- Akayu Karamiso RamenMiso ramen with a knob of chili miso in the center, dissolved gradually to shift the flavor.
- Osama Chuka SobaA chuka soba said to be a revival of a once-loved Nagano City shop's signature bowl, brought back by local ramen owners. The contrast of scalded, sweetened scallion and black pepper leaves a lasting, nostalgic impression.
Also from Nagano
- Gudakusan Miso ShiruRoot vegetables like daikon, carrot, and burdock go generously into this everyday miso soup of Nagano. Packing it with vegetables is said to allow less miso overall, and wheat dumplings are sometimes dropped in to make it a meal in itself.
- HangoroshiSticky rice, pounded only halfway to a texture called hangoroshi, is coated in sweet bean paste or roasted soybean flour — eastern Nagano's version of botamochi and ohagi, called one name in spring and the other in autumn, a festive sweet that busy farm households could put together quickly.
- Hitashi MameGreen soybeans are boiled until still faintly crisp, then steeped in a lightly seasoned dashi — a dish of northern and eastern Nagano also made with the saddle-marked kurakake bean, sometimes paired with herring roe as part of New Year's osechi.
- Hoshikabocha no EgomaaeKabocha squash, sliced into strips and sun-dried until brittle, is rehydrated and tossed in ground perilla seed — a preserved dish of the Kinasa area born from the need to keep squash, which spoils easily over winter, also used simmered or as filling for oyaki.
- Hoba MakiRice-flour dough kneaded with hot water wraps sweet bean paste, then steams inside a magnolia leaf — a Kiso festival mochi. With no oak trees in the mountains, magnolia stood in, and locals say the leaf's scent settles in best the next day.
- ImonamasuJulienned potato has its starch thoroughly rinsed away, then gets stir-fried in oil and vinegar until crisp — a dish of Iiyama City said to have been eaten since the Edo period and served on large plates at gatherings and ceremonies.