At Kichisen, the master and students work in the cold through the night like Santa’s workshop getting Japanese New Year’s Osechi ready to send via express chilled delivery to arrive at homes all over Japan on New Year’s Eve day. Kichisen’s osechi is exquisite and as it is a meal to be shared with God, it comes in a breathtaking white lacquer box.

Kichisen’s Signature White Lacquer Osechi Box 白重

The green hollyhock leaf motif on the boxes comes from the neighboring Shimogamo Shrine.

The Meaning and Symbols of Osechi Ryori

Kichisen’s osechi ryori contains 41 kinds of food. Here we introduce 13 of the representative dishes and explain some of the meaning and metaphor.

Osechi is hozonshoku, or preserved food. Historically it was prepared in advance so that the women of the family could have several days off from cooking, it is also very similar to how Japanese ate in centuries past. The dishes in osechi ryori each have a meaning related to health and happiness in the new year. Puns and plays on words and Chinese characters are common. Like the taste of the food, the symbols and metaphors are rather quant and from a different era, they remain largely unchanged today.

Representative Osechi Dishes and Their Meanings

1. Bodara 棒鱈: Eat well
Bodara is dried cod (tara) slow simmered in soy sauce. Tarafuku means to have an rich and abundant dietary life. People eat bodara wishing to eat well in the new year.

2. Iseebi Shioyu 伊勢海老塩湯: Health and long life
Salt boiled lobster. After lobster has been boiled in salt water the meat is pulled apart by hand into delicate threads. It is said to look like the white hair of the grandparents of the family. People eat this hoping to live in health well into old age.

3. Kazunoko 数の子: Many descendants
Kazunoko, herring egg sac, holds an enormous number of eggs and people eat this hoping to have many descendants.

4. Tazukuri 田作り: Bountiful harvests
Tazukuri, literally ‘making rice fields’ is dried baby sardines that have been simmered in soy sauce. In the Edo period, dried baby sardines were used as fertilizer to enrich the soil and increase the harvest.

5. Kinkan Amani 金柑甘煮: Auspiciousness and wealth
Kinkan amani is sweet, simmered kumquat. Kumquat is called kinkan in Japanese. The Chinese characters for kinkan are 金柑, 金冠, or ‘golden crown’ has the same phonetic reading. Japanese of old seem to have loved these kinds of puns.

6. Tataki Gobo 叩牛蒡: Increase good fortune, stability in life
With cooking, the ends of burdock split, people wish their luck to split and multiply. Burdock has deep roots that afford stability.

7. Karasumi Kinpaku Serohan Tsutsumi 唐墨金箔セロハン包み: Promotion, progress in life
Karasumi is the highest quality chinmi in Japan. It is made of the bora fish egg sac. This fish has different names during it’s growth stages, so its name changes as it grows up, so people eats hoping to progress in life.

8. Hirame Ryuhimaki 鮃龍飛巻: Happiness and joy
Flounder wrapped with simmered kelp. Kelp is called kombu, or kobu in Japanese. Kobu is a play on the word yorokobu, which means happiness and joy.

9. Shin Takenoko Fukumeni  新筍子含煮: Prosperity and growth
Bamboo grows very fast, so people eat this hoping for their family’s prosperity and growth to be like that of bamboo.

10. Budo Mame 葡萄豆: Diligence
These beans are black and from ancient times people believed that black has talismanic power. Mame, ‘bean’ in Japanese,  written with different characters means ‘diligent’. People eat this dish wishing to live a ‘beanly’ new year. (Beanly: Miwa made up this word, it was too great to edit. Everyone have a ‘beanly’ 2009!)

11. Matsukasa Kuwai 松笠慈姑: Auspiciousness
The kuwai bulb produces a large sprout, and this is a symbol of growth and development. The bulb is cut into the shape of a pine cone, the pine tree, in Japanese culture is a majestic and auspicious symbol.

12. Kurumaebi Tsuyayu 車海老艶湯: Longevity
Shrimp have long whiskers and their backs are curved, they are associated with elder people. People eat shrimp hoping to live a long life.

13. Ayu Komb Maki 鮎昆布巻き: Happiness
From ancient times ayu, or sweetfish was known as fish that brings happiness, the kombu, kelp wrapping is also a symbol of happiness.

Representative Osechi

From left; cod, lobster threads, herring roe, sardines, kumquat and burdock root.

Representative Osechi: Flounder with Ginger Wrapped in Kelp

Representative Osechi: Black Beans

Osechi Detail: Shoyu Simmered Cod, Bodara

After two weeks of soaking to reconstitute the dried cod, at Kichisen this dish is cooked for 2 days straight.

Osechi Detail: Salt Simmered Lobster Threads

This dish hardly tastes of salt.

Osechi Detail: Herring Eggs, Kazukono

Osechi Detail: Karasumi with Gold Leaf Wrapped in Cellophane

If you are interested in chinmi, seek out karasumi when you visit Japan, it is more cheese-like than fish in taste.

Moritsuke, Literally To Set Out

Osechi Moritsuke, or ‘serving up beautifully’, starts at midnight on December 30. The staff of Kichisen works through the night filling beautiful white lacquer boxes with the 41 dishes that had been prepared over the last few days New Year’s cuisine. For cleanliness, everyone is dressed in what look like biohazard gear. The heat was turned off and it was 2°C indoors.

Osechi Moritsuke: Filling the Boxes

Notice the large photos of the various arrangements for quick reference.

Osechi Moritsuke: Filling the Boxes

Osechi Moritsuke: Filling the Boxes

Osechi Moritsuke: Filling the Boxes

This is fish is called mutsu and has been marinaded in miso and then grilled — heavenly.

Osechi Moritsuke: Chestnuts

The yellow color is natural and achieved by simmering with gardenia seeds.

Osechi Moritsuke: Shrimp

Osechi Moritsuke: Bamboo Shoots

Osechi Moritsuke: Bamboo Shoots

Osechi Moritsuke: Candied Yuzu Peel

The Final Product: Three Layers of Exquisite Hozonshoku

Osechi Box: Bottom

Osechi Box: Middle

Osechi Box: Top

Osechi Box

Osechi Box: The Finished Product, Ready for Boxing and Shipping

Japanese New Year’s, or O-shogatsu is a celebration with ancient roots and perhaps the most prominent aspect of it is food and drink. Osechi ryori, or New Year’s cuisine is preserved food and is intended to last for several days. Osechi is richly fortified with cultural metaphor and visual symbolism. Traditionally this was the only time of the year that the mother of the family got several days holiday. Some families still make their own osechi but it is very time consuming and now it is common to order your osechi at a department store or a famous restaurant in early autumn. Kichisen’s osechi is spectacular; preparation starts in July, it serves 5, contains 41 kinds of food and comes in a one of a kind white lacquered box inspired by Shinto shrines, start saving now for next year because it costs about $1,500 USD.

Japanese New Year and Food and Drink
Shimenawa しめ縄: Rice straw ornament with mikan tangerine or other regional citrus fruit used to decorate the house, especially the entry.
Kagami Mochi 鏡餅: A ‘mochi display’ to welcome the God of the year to the home.
Otoso お屠蘇: Sake with Chinese medicinal herbs, shared by all family members to toast in a healthy year.
Osechi Ryori おせち料理: (what you are reading about)
Ozoni お雑煮: Mochi simmered in miso or sumashi soup, the taste and ingredients vary by region.

Origin of Osechi Ryori
O-shogatsu chopsticks, iwaibashi, have no handle, they are tapered on both ends; one side is for God and the other for a human. The osechi meal is one intended to be shared with God.

Osechi ryori is hozonshoku, or preserved food and still resembles what Japanese ate many centuries ago. Salt, vinegar and simmering is used to preserve the osechi food for several days. Traditionally the women of the family spent several days making the food and cleaning the house for the New Year’s celebration. During the several days of shogatsu, women generally did no work. This was their several days vacation out of the entire year.

Kichisen’s White ‘Jubako’ Lacquered Box

The green hollyhock leaf motif on the box is the symbol of Kichisen and it comes from the neighboring Shimogamo Shrine. Tanigawa made the first white lacquered box because osechi is cuisine to be eaten with God, and white, not black is the color of God in Japan, so Tanigawa changed his jubako box to white.

I, Peko, actually wanted to interview Tanigawa because I saw a photo of this white jubako, I actually didn’t know anything about him at the time. If you have seen a lot of lacquer ware, the first time you see this it is astounding, so simple, yet hugely powerful. It is quite astonishing that no one had thought of this before.

Kichisen’s Osechi
Kichisen’s osechi is traditional and orthodox. Preparation starts in summer and uses only the highest quality wild, natural ingredients and utilizes the latest in freezer technology. In July, wild natsu-matsutake, or ‘summer matsutake mushrooms’ are procured. As the shrimping season closes in November, wild shrimp are procured in October and frozen. Wild shrimp can be shelled while retaining the natural firmness, shape and texture of the meat, unlike farm raised, imported shrimp. Most osechi now, even expensive osechi, uses imported, farm raised shrimp.

Santa’s Workshop
So what are the 41 dishes in Tanigawa’s white lacquered boxes? Well, we are going over to Kichisen just as soon as we post this article to see and take some photos. Tanigawa and his students will be up all night getting the boxes ready to ship by ‘cool’ express delivery first thing in morning of December 30. Kichisen’s 2009 Osechi will arrive on December 31, just in time to eat first thing on New Year’s Day morning.

Kichisen’s ‘Old’ Osechi Jubako Box

Black, brown, gold, vermillion, natural wood are the conventional colors for lacquered jubako boxes. This was Kichisen’s design until five years ago when Tanigawa split with the crowd.