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Soy and legumes from Japan — Tokushima

Gozen miso (Awa, Tokushima)御膳味噌

Gozen miso is the rice miso of Tokushima. It uses about 1.4 times as much rice as soybeans, keeps the rice koji whole so it floats, and has about 12 % salt. Factory miso ripens warm for 40–50 days and then rests cool for about 60 days.

Fully documentedSoy and legumes3.3 months – 3.6 months

Recipe

Amounts from a sourceThe old household recipe by volume, pieced together from elders' accounts by Fukunaga 1974. It was packed in the coldest season and ripe in about 300 days. Today's factory standard is koji at 14 bu and 12 % salt.
Soybeans1 toSoaked overnight, steamed (not boiled) and skinned[FUKUNAGA-1974]
White-rice koji1 to 3 shō[FUKUNAGA-1974]
Salt3 shō (3 shō 3 gō for miso kept over the new year)[FUKUNAGA-1974]
Glutinous rice1.5 shōSteamed as okowa and cooled before it goes in[FUKUNAGA-1974]
Starterkoji (Aspergillus oryzae) on whole rice, grown as floating koji (uki-kōji)

Total time across the recorded steps: 3.3 months – 3.6 months

Start
Drag the bar or press Play
shapes, not to countMoulds

What changes: Koji mould grows deep into whole rice grains that stay intact

Step 1 of 5
Grow dry, deep floating koji (uki-kōji)
Time
Not documented
Temperature
Not documented
Salt
None given
Acidity
Not documented
Which microbes the steps name, step by step
Moulds

The koji is grown dry, with the mould deep in each grain, so the grains stay whole and float in the finished miso. Output: whole-grain rice koji.

Flavour
Not documented
Texture
Not documented
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

Gozen miso is the rice miso of Tokushima. It uses about 1.4 times as much rice as soybeans, keeps the rice koji whole so it floats, and has about 12 % salt. Factory miso ripens warm for 40–50 days and then rests cool for about 60 days. Made in 5 steps over 3.3 months – 3.6 months. The longest step, cool conditioning, takes 2 months (Fukunaga Y. (Tokushima Prefectural Industrial…). Salt is 11–13 % (Fukunaga Y. (Tokushima Prefectural Industrial…). Koji mould on the rice does most of the fermenting.

Key numbers
Main step2 monthsReported[FUKUNAGA-1974]Cool conditioning
Salt11–13 %Reported[FUKUNAGA-1974][aichi-itc]Mix and pack

What makes this one different

Gozen miso uses far more koji (14 bu) than salty red miso, so it is sweeter, yet its 12 % salt is close to salty miso. Like Echigo miso it keeps the koji grains whole and floating.

Related ferments

Variants

  • White Gozen misoA paler form, colour about Y 30 [FUKUNAGA-1974].
  • Old household Gozen misoThe mashed beans and koji were aired overnight, shaped into handful-sized balls and aired about 100 days, then chopped, pounded, packed into small vats under paper and ripened about 300 days [FUKUNAGA-1974].

Safety

The Aichi sheet says miso at about 12 % salt holds enough salt to stop unwanted microbes, which lets it ripen for a long time; Gozen miso has about 12 % salt. The GI specification says ripening runs faster in hot summer weather, so some makers ship earlier than usual after weighing changes in taste and colour. The sources set no numerical safety limit.

History and sources

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

The name is said to come from the miso served at the table (gozen) of the Hachisuka lords of Awa after 1587. The prefectural industrial test station set working standards in 1963–1966, and the makers' cooperative registered "Gozen" as a trademark in 1966 [FUKUNAGA-1974]. The GI specification adds that a new yeast developed in 1968 by the Tokushima Prefectural Industrial Test Station shortened ripening, and Gozen miso was entered in the national register of geographical indications as No. 167 on 18 March 2025 [MAFF-GI-167].

  1. [FUKUNAGA-1974] Fukunaga Y. (Tokushima Prefectural Industrial Test Station) 1974, 味噌風土記 徳島 (miso of Tokushima), J. Brew. Soc. Japan 69(2):91–93, doi:10.6013/jbrewsocjapan1915.69.91paper
  2. [aichi-itc] Itō M., 日本の伝統的発酵調味料である味噌について (On miso), Aichi Center for Industry and Science Technology, Food News No. 16, p. 3; type table adapted from みそ技術ハンドブックgov
  3. [MAFF-GI-167] MAFF, Geographical Indication register No. 167, 御膳みそ (Gozen Miso), Tokushima Prefecture; register entry and specification (明細書) of the Tokushima Miso Industrial Cooperative, registered 18 March 2025spec