Noodles ── Soba
Sarashina-kei
The Sarashina lineage — the Edo soba school built on pale, refined sarashina flour
One of Edo's three great soba lineages. It is said to trace back to 1789, when a man from Shinshu hung a sign reading "Shinshu Sarashina Soba Shop, Nunoya Tahei" in Azabu Nagasaka-cho, Edo. The lineage is said to have built its name on pale sarashina soba alongside colorful kawari-soba.
Lineage
What it's made of
The Sarashina lineage's signature rests on two pillars: pale soba made from sarashina flour, milled only from the buckwheat grain's very center, and colorful kawari-soba, made by kneading in tea, yuzu, and the like. The pale dough is said to have taken color especially well, making it a convenient base for those flavored variations.
How it's made
The grain is milled in stages, and only the purest flour from its very center is set aside for use. The lineage's technique is said to have spread from its Azabu shop in Edo through repeated noren-wake branching, carrying forward both the milling skill needed to draw out pale flour reliably and the craft of coloring and flavoring it into kawari-soba.
Why it took this shape
The name Sarashina is said to trace to the lineage's founder, a man from Shinshu granted the character "-shina" by the local Hoshina clan, which he combined with the sound of Sarashina, a district known as a hub for Shinshu buckwheat. The shop that opened in Azabu Nagasaka-cho in 1789 is said to have grown famous enough by the Meiji era to deliver to the empress and imperial households, laying the groundwork for Sarashina-branded shops to spread through noren-wake elsewhere.
Before you go
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Dishes in the same style
- Baniku SobaFrom the Aso area of Kumamoto: hot soba topped with horse meat simmered sweet and salty. It's said to carry the history of a region where horse meat took root as a restorative food for the injured and ill.
- Cha SobaA kawari-soba made by kneading powdered green tea, often matcha, into the buckwheat dough. It takes on a faint green tint along with tea's own aroma. It is said to be one of the playful noodle variations devised during the Bunka-Bunsei era (1804–30), alongside yuzu-flavored soba.