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.

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Yamagata is a just like a treasure-box full of delicacies. For example, you can savor wild vegetables in spring, fruits in summer, rice in autumn and seafood from Japan Sea in wintertime, as well as the famous Yonezawa beef. The prefecture is full of epicurean food in all four regions, Okitama, Murayama, Mogami and Shonai. Nowadays, Yamagata stimulates the appetite of Tokyo by opening an antenna shop and popular Italian restaurant cooking their local food ingredients.

It is certainly great to savor the good Yamagata food in Tokyo, but it does not mean that we have access to all Yamagata delicacies, as rare food products are often unavailable in the market. After all, the most effective way to enjoy the seasonal flavor in a reasonable price is to visit the area. The food prepared with Tohoku Michinoku’s fresh air and water tastes the best when you enjoy them locally.

The taste of Yamagata gets even more better with “Yamagata Wine,” being prepared very soon after the grape harvest. Yamagata Prefecture is the third largest producer of grapes in Japan, with 11 wineries of small and large sizes in Yamagata. Each one of them proudly presents their own “local wine” that tastes slightly different from imported wine. The taste varies from fruity demi-sec to brut, but the characteristic of Yamagata wine is “the distinctive acidity with fruity fragrance,” also different from Yamanashi or Nagano wine.

Most of the wineries are small in size. Unlike wineries in Europe, there are wineries producing Japanese sake, or those running touristic vineyards letting the visitors pick grapes during the autumn harvest season. Still, Yamagata wine has a long history; some wineries that even started the business in Meiji Period, around the same time when the preparation of wine first started in Yamanashi. It is more like domestically produced grape sake, rather than wine. From its long history, it makes sense that many families in this region has had a large bottle of wine on the dining table down the ages.

Most of the wineries are located along Route 13 that runs down north to south through the prefecture. Wineries are also scattered around the foot of Mount Gassan and along the nearby Mogami River, but the majority is in Okitama and Murayama region, in Takahata-cho, Nanyo City, and Kaminoyama City by the base of Zao Mountain range. Notably, located in the northern end of Okitama basin, Akayu Area in Nanyo City is the largest grape producer of the prefecture. The area is home to Yamagata wine with four wineries, as well as being a famous onsen resort with a nostalgic atmosphere.

Driving north up along Route 13, the scenic view of vineyards spreads around the mountain slope after passing by JR Akayu Station. As this region is a basin-shaped valley between the mountains, the vineyards are covered with fogs in the morning due to the temperature difference. This morning mist makes the taste of grapes even more sweeter, and these sweet grapes turns into a high quality wine. (To be continued)

See Part 2: Yamagata “Wine Route” Tour in the Middle of Autumn (2)

Source: Travel Vision

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