Seasonings
Zenkoji shichimi
the seven-spice blend of Nagano's temple town
A seven-spice chili blend made by a long-established shop at the gate of Zenkoji Temple, said to have opened in 1736. A steady flow of pilgrims through the temple town is credited with helping a trade in chili and medicinal spices take root there, and it is counted among Japan's 'three great shichimi', alongside Tokyo's Asakusa.
- Origin: Nagano City, Nagano
- About 180 km northwest of Tokyo
What it's made of
A seven-spice chili blend built around chili but layered with sansho pepper, dried citrus peel, and other spices. The recipe is said to prioritize a stack of aromas over raw heat, so a shake over soba or udon brings citrus and sansho notes rising up one after another behind the chili's kick.
How it's made
Chili, sansho pepper, dried citrus peel, sesame, green laver, poppy seed, and hemp seed, among others, are blended in a proportion each shop keeps to itself. That ratio varies from maker to maker, giving each blend its own balance of aroma and heat. The mix is also said to have historically been adjusted to suit the tastes of visiting pilgrims.
Why it took this shape
It's said to have been blended by a long-established shop at the gate of Zenkoji Temple, dating to 1736. The neighborhood's history as a temple town, drawing pilgrims from across the country, is credited with letting a trade in chili and spices take root there, and it is counted among Japan's 'three great shichimi', alongside Tokyo's Asakusa. Demand from people gathered at a place of pilgrimage is what's said to have nurtured the spice trade here.
Dishes in the same style
- Ako saltA salt tied to Japan's earliest full-scale commercial saltfields, using the irihama tidal-field method perfected in the Edo period. Controlling seawater with channels and embankments let work continue regardless of the tide, and the method is said to have remained Japan's main salt-making approach for some 300 years.
- Asakusa shichimiA seven-spice chili blend from a shop tracing back to 1625 in Asakusa's old Yagenbori district, often described as the origin point of shichimi togarashi. The neighborhood's history as a hub for medicinal-herb wholesalers is credited with shaping a blend informed by traditional Chinese medicine, and the shop is known for custom-mixing blends to order.
Ingredients and dishes from this land
Also from Nagano
- Anyoji RamenSaku's miso ramen built around Anyoji miso, held to be the root of Shinshu miso.
- 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.