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Vegetables from Ise and Meiwa, Mie

Ise takuan (two-year Misono daikon takuan)伊勢たくあん

Ise takuan is made from Misono daikon, a long white-necked radish bred for takuan in Mie. The roots hang on racks in sun and winter wind for one to two weeks, then are packed in a barrel with rice bran and salt under a weight. Lactic acid bacteria ferment the barrel for months and often for two years or more.

Fully documentedVegetables3 years

Recipe

Ise takuan (two-year Misono daikon takuan), a photo from Wikimedia Commons
Photo: Miyuki Meinaka, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons
No fixed amounts recordedNo tested recipe with weights was found. The sources give the method and the drying and ageing times, and one source gives the salt level.
Misono daikon, hung and dried[maff-ise][mie-brand]
Rice bran[maff-ise]
SaltAbout 10 % in the Japanese Wikipedia description; no weight given by MAFF[jawiki-ise][maff-ise]
Persimmon peel, eggplant leaves, chilli, kombu, sometimes turmericOptional seasonings and colouring; MAFF says no synthetic seasoning, colouring or preservative is used[maff-ise][mie-brand]
Starterspontaneous

Total time across the recorded steps: 3 years

Start
Drag the bar or press Play

What changes: Daikon hang on hasa racks for 1–2 weeks in sun and wind until they bend

Step 1 of 4
Hang daikon on hasa racks in the Ise plain
Time
7–14 days
Reported
Temperature
Not documented
Salt
None given
Acidity
Not documented
Flavour
Not documented
Texture
dried until it can be bent into the kana letter 'no'
Colour
Not documented

Microbes at work in this step

Not documented for this step.

Method

Measured measured in a studySet fixed by a specification or tested recipeReported one source reports itTypical a general value, not sourced for this fermentUnconfirmed not yet checked against a source

At a glance

Ise takuan is made from Misono daikon, a long white-necked radish bred for takuan in Mie. The roots hang on racks in sun and winter wind for one to two weeks, then are packed in a barrel with rice bran and salt under a weight. Lactic acid bacteria ferment the barrel for months and often for two years or more. Made in 4 steps over 3 years. The longest step, lactic fermentation, takes up to 3 years (MAFF にっぽん伝統食図鑑 (Traditional Foods of Japan) 2026). Salt is 10 % (Japanese Wikipedia 2026).

Key numbers
Main stepup to 3 yearsReported[maff-ise][mie-2013]Lactic fermentation
Salt10 %Reported[jawiki-ise]Pack with bran, salt, kombu, persimmon peel, eggplant leaves and chilli

What makes this one different

Dried in the wind of the Ise plain and aged for months to two years or more. The roots are one named variety, Misono daikon, and the name is a regional collective trademark.

Related ferments

Safety

The barrel is salted at around 10 % and fermented by lactic acid bacteria for about two years (Japanese Wikipedia). MAFF says no synthetic seasoning, colouring or preservative is used.

History and sources

Every number is labelled with how it is known. How this atlas is made

Begun in late Edo in Misono (Ise) with surplus daikon; sold by farm women in Osaka and Kyoto from Meiji; 300,000 barrels in 1943; 150,000 in 1950. Post-war barrels were sweetened with saccharin and dulcin and coloured with turmeric and tartrazine (auramine before 1947).

Microbes
No study we found names its microbes.
  1. [maff-ise] MAFF にっぽん伝統食図鑑 (Traditional Foods of Japan), 伊勢たくあん (Mie), read 2026-10-27gov
  2. [mie-brand] Mie Prefecture, 平成28年度三重ブランド認定のポイントについて (2016 Mie Brand certification notes), 伊勢たくあん sectiongov
  3. [mie-2013] Mie Prefecture, Food innovation page (2013-02-26), 伊勢たくあん in a regional gift setgov
  4. [jawiki-ise] Japanese Wikipedia, 伊勢たくあん (製法, 歴史), read 2026-10-16wiki