Fermented & preserved ── Tsukemono (pickles)
Wasabi-zuke
Wasabizuke — chopped wasabi worked into sake lees, a Shizuoka station souvenir since 1889
Chopped wasabi stem and root worked into sake lees. Cultivation is said to trace to Utogi, a valley Tokugawa Ieyasu once forbade anyone to carry wasabi out of, and the pickle became a fixture of Shizuoka Station's platform stalls from 1889.
- Origin: Shizuoka Shizuoka (Utogi, Aoi Ward)
- About 140 km west of Tokyo
Lineage
What it's made of
Chopped wasabi stem and root are worked into sake lees kneaded with sugar and sake. The wasabi's sharp bite meets the lees' sweetness in a flavor said to appeal mainly to adult palates. Heavy rainfall, the local geology, and spring water that holds steady around 13°C year-round are said to make Shizuoka Japan's leading wasabi-growing prefecture in both yield and quality.
How it's made
Wasabi stem and root are salted overnight, squeezed well of their liquid, then worked bit by bit into sake lees kneaded with sugar and salt. Sealed and left for two to three days, it develops its bite and is ready to eat; if it turns out too sharp, leaving the lid slightly open is said to mellow it. Terraced wasabi paddies are built into mountain slopes wherever spring water rises, grown with as little fertilizer as possible.
Why it took this shape
Cultivation is said to trace to the Keicho era, when wild wasabi growing near Shizuoka's Utogi district was transplanted beside a spring there; Tokugawa Ieyasu, who spent his final years at nearby Sunpu Castle, is said to have forbidden anyone to carry it outside the district, keeping it a local secret for years. Growing methods reached Izu by the mid-18th century, and once a terraced technique called tataishi-shiki was developed there, it spread across the whole prefecture. Sales at Shizuoka Station from 1889 are said to mark its start as a standard souvenir.
Before you go
- How to shop at a supermarketHow to choose prepared foods, sashimi, and packaged sushi, when discount stickers tend to appear, region-only specialties, buying by weight, the checkout and bagging flow, and sampling etiquette at a local supermarket.
- How to shop in a depachika (department store food hall)A guide to browsing prepared foods and bento, choosing wagashi as a gift with a good shelf life, sampling etiquette, end-of-day discounts, asking for cold packs and wrapping, and finding your way around a depachika floor.
- Enjoying a bussanten (regional products fair)A guide to what's sold at a bussanten (regional products fair), how to find one, when it gets crowded, shelf life and taking food home, and how to fit one around a trip.
Dishes in the same style
- Bettara-zukeDaikon salted first, then pickled sweet in rice malt and sugar — said to descend from a lightly pickled daikon once sold at Edo's ebisu-kō market. The rice malt gives it a natural sweetness, and it still headlines Nihonbashi's autumn "Bettara Market."
- Fukujin-zukeSeven kinds of vegetables — daikon, eggplant, lotus root among them — diced and steeped in a soy-based marinade. Said to have originated in Tokyo, it's best known today as curry rice's standard side.
Ingredients and dishes from this land
Also from Shizuoka
- Abekawa MochiFresh-pounded rice cake is dusted in soybean flour mixed with sugar. Named for the Abe River, it's said to have been famous among Tokaido travelers as a teahouse specialty and to appear in the travel novel Tokaidochu Hizakurige.
- BokumeshiSteamed eel and shaved burdock are simmered together and folded into freshly cooked rice. Its name is said to trace to oversized eels unfit for sale, used in staff meals at eel farms along the Oi River — a mixed rice dish of the region.
- Fuji KinkaBred by Shizuoka Prefecture by crossing its own Duroc line, Fujirock, with Jinhua, a rare breed from China's Zhejiang province — found only in Shizuoka. Said to combine Jinhua's tenderness with Fujirock's marbling.
- Fujieda Asa RamenA town that eats ramen at breakfast — often a hot bowl followed by a cold one.
- Fujinomiya YakisobaIt grew up as a postwar snack at Fujinomiya's candy shops and okonomiyaki stalls. Its identity rests on three local staples: chewy steamed noodles, pork-lard cracklings called nikukasu, and a sardine-powder topping called dashiko.
- GawaRaw bonito is minced and mixed into a chilled miso broth with cucumber, pickled plum, and shiso. Its name is said to come from the "gawa-gawa" sound of stirring miso into ice water aboard a fishing boat — originally a summer meal made at sea.