Koji Fermentation Laboratory: Bridging Tradition & Future
Oct 08,2020
Oct 08,2020
Just beside the Inokashira Park Zoo stands a small house with a modest sign reading Gotenyama Club, marking the entrance to Shobu Kana’s Koji Fermentation Lab. Shobu, who encountered koji [rice malt] during an apprenticeship at a Japanese restaurant, credits this encounter as a turning point in her life.
She talks about how she lives each day with a sense of excitement, even now in her position as someone who relays the charms of fermentation, how the wisdom of ancestors, who contrived fermentation methods for long-term food preservation, has been passed down continuously to the present day, and how fermentation adds both flavor and nutrition to ingredients.
We spoke with Shobu about her commitment to preserving fermentation culture by exploring contemporary ways to present fermentation as well as about the activities of her Koji Fermentation Lab.
As you open the entrance to the Gotenyama Club, you are greeted by the faintly sweet aroma of koji. To your right, large jars of soy sauce koji, salted koji, and rice miso line the windowsill. On the carpeted tatami mat in the Japanese-style room, a polished table is adorned with cute dried flowers. Despite being first-time visitors, the space feels somehow familiar, gently easing away fatigue and tension with its warm ambiance.
This is the café within the Koji Fermentation Lab, where Shobu Kana serves as representative director.
A cozy space that evokes a sense of nostalgia
The interior is lined with fermented foods made by Shobu herself
Thursday through Sunday on the second week of every month, the café serves dishes centered on the theme of living microorganisms.
The course meal on the day of our visit begins with beetroot amazake [a sweet drink made from koji], followed by a colorful assortment of appetizers on a wooden tray, locally raised chicken marinated and grilled in salted koji with the appetite-inducing aroma of green yuzu citrus, tekone-zushi [sashimi loosely mixed with rice by hand], wax gourd soup with sesame, and a sweet dessert made with blueberries from Ise, among other dishes, for a total of 12 items. The dishes and drinks, which feature homemade seasonings, change according to the season and time of year.
The appetizers on the day of our visit included (starting from the top left and moving clockwise) pumpkin and salted koji ground soup, beetroot potato croquettes, corn and octopus rice flour fritters, vegetables with homemade miso, eggplant and seasoned ground beef in a savory miso gelée, and spring rolls with avocado and soy sauce koji chicken.
“One thing I enjoy is thinking about the menu for each season. I hope my guests will fully enjoy these healthy and delicious fermented dishes.”
Shobu, while working at a company, decided to pursue a career in cooking and served an apprenticeship at a Japanese restaurant, which is where she became aware of the appeal of fermentation.
“When I went to Europe on a trip after graduating from university, I was pained to realize how little I knew about Japan despite being Japanese. I always had this desire deep in my heart to learn more about Japan and share it with others. Choosing Japanese cuisine as a career was a natural progression, as I had always loved cooking.
“However becoming a Japanese chef as a woman is challenging in itself, and I had no formal training from a specialized school. I wanted to become a skilled chef as quickly as possible, so I apprenticed at a Japanese restaurant while also taking classes to learn how to fillet fish. Those classes were run by Koretomo Maki, a head instructor at the Japan Fermentation Culture Association and an expert in fish cuisine.”
Shobu was deeply moved by her encounter with fermentation, devised by our ancestors to survive the harsh conditions they faced, and by the discovery that fermentation still sustains Japanese people today while adding nutrition and flavor to ingredients.
Inspired by her experience, Shobu began making miso. In a workshop near her family home in Chiba, she made 600 kilograms of miso using meticulously selected ingredients and methods and started selling the miso at markets.
At the same time, she worked on developing an amazake rich in amino acids, made without additives, sugar, or heat.
Heating amazake during the production process kills off beneficial bacteria, rendering their high nutritional value useless.
She wanted to deliver freshly made amazake with live bacteria. After much trial and error, she arrived at the solution: a food truck that could serve amazake just as it was made.
Shobu’s amazake smoothies and enzyme juices are packed with enzymes and amino acids, refreshingly easy to drink, and vibrant in color. Her food truck also sells an original take on fermented Vietnamese bánh mì sandwiches, filled with meat marinated in salted koji along with amazake-marinated daikon radish and carrot and coated in a sauce made with soy sauce koji and honey. All of this is sandwiched in French bread made with rice flour.
Starting out in markets held in Tokyo neighborhoods like Aoyama, Ebisu, and Koenji, the food truck gained popularity wherever it went.
Building on the success of the food truck, the company was incorporated in 2019. At the same time, Shobu opened a café serving lunch and afternoon tea in the current Gotenyama Club. The food truck operates on the premises on Saturdays (operations are cancelled in the event of rain).
“At first, our customers were mainly acquaintances and neighbors, but now we have customers coming from far away as well. We cater to a wide range of ages, from people in their 20s to their 80s. We also have regular customers who look forward to when the food truck is open, which is very heartwarming.”
In summer, the café also serves shaved ice using homemade fruit enzyme syrup
Shobu says that in the future, she would like to continue operating both the café and the food truck while putting energy into developing products that allow people to enjoy fermentation in a more familiar fashion. She is actively engaged in her work, using her holidays to travel to Sado Island in search of ingredients for her development and research.
“I believe my role is not only to preserve and popularize fermented foods that are both healthy and delicious but also to pass them on to future generations. To do this, it’s crucial to adapt traditions to suit modern times rather than simply preserving them as they were. I want to continue communicating the charms of fermentation in ways that resonate with the lifestyles of people today.”