Meat ── Wagyu
Yonezawa Gyu
made famous by an English teacher in early Meiji
Said to have been made famous by an English teacher in early Meiji. Raised in the Okitama basin's sharp seasons.
- Origin: Yamagata Yonezawa
- About 250 km north of Tokyo
Lineage
What it's made of
Unbred Japanese Black heifers raised in Yamagata's Okitama basin. The basin's sharp swings between hot and cold are said to be what produces such fine marbling; winters that drop to minus 17°C are said to raise the quality of the fat itself. The marbling melts softly in the mouth — a texture bound up tightly with the region's cold, and the defining trait of the meat.
How it's made
Registered farms across the three cities and five towns of Okitama raise each animal carefully for 32 months or longer. Few breeding farms operate locally, the story goes, so fattening farms instead buy in calves from elsewhere and raise them with care — each animal tracked individually from arrival through to shipment.
Why it took this shape
One account credits an English teacher invited to the region in the early Meiji era with spreading word of the beef's flavor, sparking its early reputation. But the real foundation of that flavor lies in the basin's climate — the swing between hot and cold, day and night, is said to produce fine marbling, and the harsh winter cold is said to raise the quality of the fat itself.
Before you go
- At yakiniku, shabu-shabu, and hot potGrilling your own meat at yakiniku, swishing thin slices at shabu-shabu, and sharing from the pot — the customs behind each.
- Reservations and queuesFrom phone reservations still being the norm at many shops, to how queues work, seating alone at the counter, and asking a hotel for help.
Dishes in the same style
- Aizu GyuSteers and heifers of Japanese Black raised in the Aizu basin, fed mainly local rice straw — the basin's sharp seasonal swings are said to suit fattening, making it Fukushima's leading brand.
- Awa GyuPedigreed Japanese Black fattened in Tokushima, which gained recognition after being shown at a Tokyo meat market competition in 1962 — said to have a moist, fine-grained texture and modest fat.
Ingredients and dishes from this land
Also from Yamagata
- Akayu Karamiso RamenMiso ramen with a knob of chili miso in the center, dissolved gradually to shift the flavor.
- Akebi no Miso ZumeyakiThe bittersweet rind of the akebia fruit is stuffed with minced meat and maitake mushroom simmered in miso and sugar, tied with kitchen string, and grilled. Elsewhere in Japan the white pulp is what gets eaten, but Yamagata is said to hold onto the unusual custom of eating the rind instead.
- DongarajiruWinter cod caught in the coldest weeks goes into a miso soup head to tail, innards included — said to trace back to fishermen's cooking on the Shonai coast. The liver's richness carries the flavor, and the traditional way adds only a scrap of rock nori, no scallion.
- Hatahata no YuageHatahata, scaleless sailfin sandfish that crowd the Shonai coast to spawn, are boiled whole and eaten with nothing more than grated daikon and soy sauce — a simple winter fish dish. With no scales to remove, it is said to have become a fixture of Shonai's autumn and winter table.
- Hyoboshi no NimonoPurslane, called hyo, is picked in summer, boiled, and sun-dried into a keeping food, then rehydrated and simmered with shirataki, carrot, and fried tofu for New Year. The name is said to be played on for luck — a wish that something good might happen, hyotto, this year.
- ImoniTaro, beef, konnyaku, and scallion simmer together in a soy-based autumn hot pot said to trace to boatmen on the Mogami River, who cooked taro and dried cod on the riverbank while waiting out the delays of cargo transport. On the Shonai coast the same dish turns to pork and miso.