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