How a Group of Uonuma Moms Is Preserving Local Cooking Traditions for Posterity

In the Sumon neighborhood of Uonuma, Niigata Prefecture, there’s a community center called Katakko. It’s located on high ground offering a view of the nearby ski lift to the Suhara Ski Area. The center houses an alpine restaurant established by several local moms. They’re eager to share the great taste of traditional cuisine made with natural ingredients from the surrounding countryside.

I recently visited the place, and when I ascended the stairs, a delicious aroma enveloped me in the crystal mountain air. In the kitchen, I could hear the chopping of knives and the chatter of voices checking how the food was coming along. Then a woman appeared bearing a large tray full of plates. It was Sakai Iho, the head of Sansai Sumon no Kai, a group run by Uonuma moms. A kaleidoscope of dishes promptly materialized on the table before me. As I savored this wonderful meal, I asked about the traditional cuisine of Sumon and the group’s activities.

Each day’s menu depends on the ingredients at hand.

“If you want another helping of rice, just ask,” Mrs. Sakai told me as she brought a tray with steaming hot rice and miso soup and a colorful set of side dishes. In all, about ten local women work on preparing the food at Sansai Sumon no Kai. Three of them looked after me on my visit: the group’s head Mrs. Sakai; Shida Satoko, a qualified chef; and Otsuka Michiko, who runs the kitchen.。

Sakai Iho, head of Sansai Sumon no Kai

The lineup of dishes served is largely fixed: broiled fish or meat of the season, plus nimono (a stewed dish), aemono (food dressed in a sauce), kinpira (seasoned vegetables), sunomono (a vinegared dish), and pickles. The specifics are decided by the women present each day in light of what they can make with the ingredients available.

On the day of my visit, the aemono was a seasonal special: shungiku (chrysanthemum greens) and perilla leaves dressed in a sauce and served in a small bowl.

“We were going to make a regular salad with tofu dressing,” Mrs. Sakai explained, “but then a neighbor happened to give me some perilla. It’s a bit unusual, don’t you think?”

Thus a dish combining the aroma of shungiku with the texture of perilla leaves emerged from a casual conversation in the kitchen.

Traditional Sumon cuisine goes wonderfully with Koshihikari rice from Uonuma!

My meal consisted of an ample eight autumn dishes excluding rice, pickles, and dessert. I asked the three women in detail about the food.

＜Sansai Sumon Meal＞
・ Koshihikari rice grown in Uonuma
・ Miso soup with tofu, nameko mushrooms, and green onions
・ Salted and broiled ayu sweetfish
・ Lotus root, shungiku, maitake mushroom, and sweet potato tempura
・Stewed zenmai (royal fern), kurumabu (wheat-gluten rings), shiitake mushroom, and marinated boiled egg
・ Shungiku and perilla leaves in tofu dressing
・ Stewed daikon with nanban koji
・ Vinegared kakinomoto (edible chrysanthemum) and grated daikon
・ Daikon leaf kinpira
・ Pickles
・ Persimmon

Stewed royal fern and wheat-gluten rings are a staple of the New Year and other ceremonial occasions in the Uonuma region. They’re usually served with dried herring as well, but they weren’t in this case. “Mrs. Sakai isn’t very fond of dried herring, so we don’t include it,” said Mrs. Otsuka with a chuckle. “That’s right,” Mrs. Shida chimed in. Then all three laughed in unison.

“In the old days, people would often get together like this to make food. But that seldom happens anymore. Here we start preparing the meal after we get a reservation from a customer, but we’re half doing it for ourselves. We get together to make the food, then once the customer leaves, we gossip over tea. It’s a lot of fun.”

The tempura and stewed items are made with ingredients picked at home by the group’s members or vegetables sold at the local farmers’ market. The wild plants served are gathered on walks in the mountains, while the miso is made by hand by the members. On the day of my visit, Mrs. Otsuka’s homemade miso—aged for three years—was used.

The vinegared dish, a vibrantly colored combination of edible chrysanthemum and grated daikon, was a reminder of the unique culinary culture of Niigata. Here chrysanthemum is eaten blanched and marinated or served vinegared. This dish is often made in the home in fall and early winter when edible chrysanthemums are available in stores. It’s refreshingly mild with an elegant flavor.

The nanban koji used on the daikon is a type of local preserve made by fermenting kagura nanban peppers in rice koji and salt. It’s a long-lasting fermented food unique to this region with its heavy snowfall. It serves many different purposes. It can be added as a garnish, for example, or used to flavor stewed items.

We want to pass on the dishes we always eat to future generations.

“Everything served by Sansai Sumon no Kai has been eaten locally since olden times,” Mrs. Sakai and company say. “There’s nothing unusual about it.”

Local cuisine lovingly made in the time-honored way with Sumon ingredients is simply something people here take for granted. But it could eventually disappear as the population dwindles, because there’ll be no one to pass it on to. Sansai Sumon no Kai was therefore launched over a decade ago to spread the word about the attractions of the local cuisine and pass it on to a new generation. Back then the members each had their own jobs, so they would gather whenever they could find the time. They would visit Niigata Prefecture’s retail outlet in Tokyo and the Niigata Furusato-mura service area to showcase Sumon food.

Meanwhile, they began serving meals to tourists and locals at the Katakko center. Besides taking meal bookings, they also offer a buffet featuring a similar selection of dishes twice a month between May and October.

“We really wanted to have a go at a buffet,” the three women say with a mischievous laugh. All have been with the group from its inception and worked together ever since. Even now, they’ve lost none of their enthusiasm for preparing delicious meals and creating a cozy ambience. If a new restaurant opens in town, they’ll drop by on a day off to check out the place and try the food.

On the other hand, they say that they find the job increasingly taxing of late. The Katakko center is located near a ski resort, and the area gets lots of snow. What’s more, the restaurant is on the third floor. The women basically commute by car, but it’s exhausting to haul the food up to the kitchen.

“When we have lots of bookings, there’s that much more food to carry. It’s quite a slog.”

So how is the group going to keep going as the members grow older? Amid mounting concerns about its future, a new member has recently joined. The three women gleefully told me about this “youthful addition” to their numbers.

“Youthful relatively speaking, that is. She’s in her sixties, but that’s pretty young compared to us, right [laughter]? She told us to our surprise that she’d never made traditional local cuisine, but she’s a quick learner, so it’s a joy to teach her.”

We live in rapidly changing times. But some things never change, and local Japanese food is one of them. The members of Sansai Sumon no Kai are working away in the kitchen again today, attired in colorful aprons with their hair wrapped in cloth.