Japanese Hard Candy: Shoyu Ame

Sawai Shoyu Honten Soy Sauce Candy 澤井醤油本店 醤油の飴
Sawai Shoyu has been in business in Kyoto since 1879 and makes the premium quality brand of Marusawa Soy Sauce. The immediate neighborhood smells nearly oppressively of fermenting and brewing soy sauce and the old wooden store houses can be seen at the back of the site.

I have used Marusawa shoyu and ponzu for several years but when I stopped by the other day to get my favorite grapefruit ponzu I spotted this hard candy flavored with soy sauce. I have seen this kind of candy before but I don’t recall ever eating it so I picked up a bag.

The sauce that is poured over mitarashi dango grilled mochi dumplings is sweet and shoyu based. I don’t much like it but it is very popular with Japanese and this confection was invented in Kyoto centuries ago.

Award Winning Soy Sauce: Marusawa Brand Shoyu

Award Winning Soy Sauce: Marusawa Brand Shoyu

How did soy sauce candy taste?
It hardly tasted of soy sauce. It tasted like hard candy with this, hmm, what is that taste in there? If I hadn’t known that it included shoyu, I doubt that I would have caught it, it was that subtle. Actually, I think that the taste was a bit too understated. Obviously, a little shoyu goes a long way — with anything, especially candy! However, my tongue wants to know what it is that I am eating. It is not enough for my eyes to just read the label and know.

There is a concept in Japanese cuisine called kakushi-aji, literally ‘hidden taste’. A hidden taste is what it sounds like. It is there, you pick it up but it is not quite pronounced enough for most people to be able to isolate it and identify it. For example, in Kyoto-style sushi, quite a bit of dashi broth is used to make the sushi rice. If you just taste the sushi rice, you can’t miss it. By the time it becomes sushi, it isn’t a prominent taste but it does add depth and complexity to the overall flavor.

I see the shoyu in this candy as fulfilling the function of a kakushi-aji but it is billed as the main event on the package. I doubt that was the makers intent, but that is how it comes off for me. Whatever the case, it is a contradiction. I think that if they doubled the amount of soy sauce they put in, it would be just right. But, I could easily be wrong! I think this is a tough combination to get just right. But this is Kyoto, it has to be just right!

There is a shinise that makes salt flavored hard candy that I sometimes but, it isn’t from Kyoto. It is out of this world, and I don’t even like salt! That candy is subtle and delicate yet you know you are eating salt flavored candy. So, I think my ideal is possible.

Nevertheless, I like this shoyu ame candy quite a lot and it would make a novel and tasty omiyage souvenir to bring back home.

Shuyu Ame Package

This is a very lame package design with lots of plastic waste. It needs some serious kaizen. Too bad.

Marusawa Shoyu Honten Machiya Facade

Marusawa Shoyu Honten Sign

SHARE! Kyoto Support Forum: Shopping, Souvenirs and Kyoto Meibutsu

SHARE! Kyoto Support Topic: Where to Purchase Basic Ingredients for Japanese Cooking in Kyoto

Tweet! Tweet! Find out what’s going on in Kyoto right now, follow me on Twitter.

Map to Sawai Shoyu Honten

View OpenKyoto/KyotoFoodie Map in a larger map

The furoshiki wrapping cloth is both utilitarian and beautiful. In daily life it is used to wrap and carry lunch boxes to work or picnics and on special occasions for wrapping gifts of food and drink.

We want to do some articles that examine the other, non-edible things that are a distinct part of Japanese culinary culture. Meet the furoshiki ‘wrapping cloth’, it is convenient, versatile, reusable, very eco-friendly and of course uniquely beautiful.

History and Development of the Furoshiki
From ancient times, Japanese used a square cloth, called hirazutsumi for wrapping and carrying goods. The oldest example in existence is from Nara period (710-794) and is in the treasure house of the Shosoin Imperial Repository located in Nara city. Nara was the capital of Japan before Kyoto.

The modern word, furoshiki means ‘bath cloth’ and is from the Edo period (1603-1868) because people used a furoshiki to carry their personal affects to and from the public bath. Throughout history the furoshiki was probably most often used by merchants to carry goods and wares to market. The modern furoshiki, while still an utilitarian object is also a thing of beauty and is often used as a wrapping for gifts. Smaller furoshiki are often used by people to carry their bento lunchbox to work. The furoshiki is now a popular alternative to throwaway shopping bags. Cotton and silk furoshiki are still most common, but now synthetic fabrics are also popular for their durability and ease to clean. The Japanese government has even initiated this project to promote the furoshiki to the wider world as a way to reduce waste.

Karakusaya Furoshiki Store
We were given some demonstrations at Karakusaya, a furoshiki store owned by one of Kyoto’s oldest and largest furoshiki producers.

Karakusaya is located in central Kyoto within walking distance of many of Kyoto’s famous ryokan such as Sumiya Ryokan, Hiiragiya Ryokan, and Tawaraya Ryokan. Okura Hotel is also nearby.

As furoshiki are moderately priced, light-weight and unbreakable, they also make excellent gifts to take back home. If you don’t think that you can master the knots, you can still use them as a table cloth. If you would like to learn the wrapping and knotting techniques, you can stop in at Karakusaya for a free of charge lesson!

Beautifully Wrapped Sake Bottle

Furoshiki Wrapping Gourd-shaped Sake Bottle

The furoshiki enables you to wrap things of nearly any shape.

Wrapping Picnic Lunch

The furoshiki can wrap multiple, oddly shaped things into a single secure and easy to carry package.

Beautifully Wrapped Picnic Lunch

The utilitarian furoshiki is becomes a beautiful creation when tied.

How for Fold and Tie Instruction Manual

Karakusaya offers some English language guidance on the techniques needed to be a furoshiki master.

The Store

Karakusaya Manager

Notice the contemporary colored furoshiki in the background.

Products on Store Shelves

Contemporary colors

Products on Store Shelves

This is the karakusa, or ivy motif, very important in Japanese culture.

Products on Store Shelves

Wrapped wine bottle

Products on Store Shelves

This series is Peko’s favorite.

Products on Store Shelves

More traditional patterns and motifs.

Products on Store Shelves

Products on Store Shelves

Contemporary colors and mofits

Furoshiki Wrapping and Tying Video Demonstrations

Furoshiki Wrapping Two Sake Bottles

Furoshiki Wrapping Isshobin Sake Bottle

Furoshiki Wrapping Shoulder Bag

Furoshiki Wrapping Handbag

Karakusaya Storefront

English:
English brochure: yes
English website: none
Japanese language site: Miyai Corporate Site | How to Tie (excellent images)
Service/Staff: friendly with free furoshiki wrapping lessons
Hours: 10am-6pm, closed Monday and Tuesday
Location and Access: —
Address: Kyoto-shi Nakagyo-ku, Muromachi Rokkaku-sagaru Funayama-cho 510
(京都市中京区室町六角下ル鯉山町５１０番地)
Telephone: 075-221-0390

Map:

View Larger Map

Picnic with Furoshiki

Paku, a true furoshiki lover took us for a picnic at the Kyoto Gosho Imperial Palace grounds to demonstrate the multiple uses that the furoshiki can be put to. She wrapped our picnic lunch, transported it and then we used the same furoshiki to sit on while we had our lunch. We of course took our shoes off.

Picnic with Furoshiki

Picnic with Furoshiki

Picnic with Furoshiki

Just before catching a bullet back to Kyoto, I ducked into the omiyage/gourmet food court at Shinagawa Shinkansen Station (in Tokyo) to get some omiyage for Paku and some ‘bento’ for my two and a half hour train ride back to ‘old’ Japan.

At a kind of gourmet riceball shop, I chose some Sakura Onigiri, Nanohana Tempura Onigiri. (Onigiri are rice balls.) Sakura is the Japanese cherry and nanohana is spring greens and blossoms of the rape plant. Once on the train and underway, I was extremely pleased with my choice!

Train Food: Seasonal ‘Spring’ Onigiri – Salted Cherry Blossom and Rape Blossom Tempura

Deepfried (tempura) Rape Blossom Onigiri (left), Salted Cherry Blossom (Sakura) Onigiri (center), Bottled Green ‘Strong’ Tea (right)

Train Food: Seasonal ‘Spring’ Onigiri – detail

‘Season’ in Japanese Culture
In Japanese cuisine, the season is very, very important. Regional variations are cherished by residents and sought out when traveling. Even simple food in Japan such as that found in a train station or convenience store is expected to be fresh and tasty, seasonal and regional.

Spring: Sakura and Nanohana

Salted Cherry Blossoms (Sakura-no-Shiozuke 桜の塩漬け) in Japanese Cuisine
Salted sakura blossoms (Sakura-no-Shiozuke) and leaves are used in numerous ways in Japanese cuisine the most commonplace being sakura-mochi. Sakura-mochi has various forms but it inevitably has mochi, wrapped in a salted sakura leaf with a Sakura-no-Shiozuke blossom on top. The blossom and leaf exude a potent sakura fragrance. The salt somehow accentuates and amplifies the sakura fragrance.

This flavor and fragrance is much loved by Japanese and appears in many novel forms in contemporary Japanese cuisine. A favorite of mine (Peko) is this Sakura-no-Shiozuke flavor in ice cream. The contract of creamy and salty, all enveloped in the potent sakura fragrance is simply fantastic!

Shio-zakura (桜の塩漬け) Onigiri
Here a salted sakura blossom garnishes the onigiri, but stirred into the rice, as it was still hot is finely chopped salted sakura blossom and leaf. The rice is a light pink with bits of green. I had never had this before and it was quite a delight.

Everyone out there in foodie can surely make this one as salted sakura blossoms are available abroad.

Nanohana (菜の花) Onigiri
Nanohana (rape blossoms) have been discussed in recent posts on KyotoFoodie. Nanohana is much loved late-winter and early spring delicacy. Here the blossoms have been deepfried, sandwiched between two layers of rice and wrapped in nori.

These fresh, slightly bitter greens, lightly deepfried in onigiri was another first for me and was most excellent, a perfect contrast to the light and perfumy sakura!

What do you think?
Have you made onigiri?
Are you interested in onigiri recipies?