TokyoTomo Travel Guide

Yamagata prefecture is known to Japanese being the region associated with NHK’s period drama “Tenchijin, Naoe Kanetsugu.” Filled with the sense of history and the touching sense of journey, this snow country in Tohoku is a treasure box of food. Winding past the prefecture, Mogami River historically divided the surrounding areas into four regions, “Okitama,” “Murayama,” “Mogami,” and “Shonai,” each having its own food culture. The local specialities has been passed along since Edo period, such as vegetarian dishes in the foot of the sacred mountain, Gassan, and the ryotei dishes that flourished in post station of Kitamae trade ship. These remind us of the origin of food we tend to forget in the age of plenty.

Food and Characteristics of Four Areas Nurturing Food Culture in Snowy Yamagata

Okitama（Around Yonezawa City）

Yonezawa is a city in the mountain long ruled by Kanetsugu Naoe and Uesugi clan, with many local specialities including Yonezawa beef. After April, snow-deep Yamagata is in season for wild vegetables. Fresh fukinoto (butterbut sprout) and tara-no-me (aralia sprout) are served up, as well as local vegetables such as yukina, ugoki, kogomi, and urui. On the other hand, the area is in basin-shaped valley surrounded by mountains, and has scarce food in winter, so the locals have developed serving ideas and storage method to keep hunger away. Among those preserved food, yukina is a rare white vegetable that grows inside the snow. “Fusube-zuke,” a boiled and soused yukina, is the speciality with a unique pungent taste.

Promoted by Yozan Uesugi who is the legendary ruler of virtue in Yonezawa, “katemono” is the origin of Yonezawa’s local dishes which is used an ingredient cooked together with the staple food. These were used to make the food filling during the time of lean harvest and famine.

“Ukogi” is one of “katemono,” promoted by Kanetsugu Naoe for both crime prevention purpose and to be used as an emergency food. Even nowadays, ukogi is normally planted as a hedge around the houses of Yonezawa region. The sprouts and new leaves are nutritious and edible, served as tempura, boiled ugoki, marinated with other ingredients, or mixed with rice.

Murayama（Around Yamagata City）

Located in the center of Yamagata prefecture with a view of Zao Mountain Range, this region has a big difference in temperature that makes it a famous place for growing soba (buckwheat). Arrays of soba shops stand along Mogami River; Murayama region is the first place to open “soba-kaido (buckwheat trail) within the prefecture. Other than that, traditional spring vegetable “ozasa-urui” and the speciality “hana-wasabi ” is picked around this area in spring.

Though snow still remains in springtime, Gassan-shizu onsen greets many visitors with its traditional vegetarian dishes using indigenous wild vegetables. The local delicacies are “rokujo-dofu,” a hard salted tofu dried in the cool weather, and “Kaki-namashi,” dried persimmon and yama-gurumi (walnut) marinated with vinegar and sugar.

Mogami River starts from the mountains in Yonezawa and runs through the prefecture from south to up north, and flows into the rice-producing area, Shonai Plain. The river is as long as 229 km and is called the motherly river in Yamagata, once being an important ship route where staple goods and everyday commodities were transported to and from the basin-shaped valleys. Prospered from trading safflower, Murakami’s specialty products, and Shonai rice, merchants brought in Osaka and Kyoto cultures using the ship routes. The traditional Japanese restaurants around the river mouth in Sakata are the remnant from those days.

Mogami（Around Shinjo City）

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