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Soy and legumes from Japan — Yamanashi

Kōshū miso (rice-and-barley koji miso, Yamanashi)甲州味噌

Kōshū miso is Yamanashi's miso made with two koji, rice koji and barley koji, usually in roughly equal parts. Boiled soybeans are kneaded with the salted koji, thrown into a wooden barrel as fist-sized balls to drive out air, and left in a cool storehouse until the next winter.

Fully documentedSoy and legumes12 months

Recipe

No fixed amounts recordedThe traditional method has no fixed amounts. The 1990 trial batches of the Yamanashi miso cooperative used koji at 80 % and 120 % of the soybean weight and 12 % salt.
SoybeansBoiled until soft enough to crush between the fingers; the cooking water is kept[MAFF-TF-kosyu_miso]
Rice koji and barley kojiOften about half and half, but the share differs by maker and product[MAFF-TF-kosyu_miso]
Salt[MAFF-TF-kosyu_miso]
Bean cooking waterAdded while kneading to get the right firmness[MAFF-TF-kosyu_miso]
Starterrice koji and barley koji

Total time across the recorded steps: 12 months

Start
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What changes: Soybeans boil until they crush easily between the fingers

Step 1 of 4
Boil the soybeans soft
Time
Not documented
Temperature
Not documented
Salt
None given
Acidity
Not documented
Which microbes the steps name, step by step
Moulds

Output: boiled soybeans, cooled; cooking water kept.

Flavour
Not documented
Texture
soft enough to crush between the fingers
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

Kōshū miso is Yamanashi's miso made with two koji, rice koji and barley koji, usually in roughly equal parts. Boiled soybeans are kneaded with the salted koji, thrown into a wooden barrel as fist-sized balls to drive out air, and left in a cool storehouse until the next winter. Made in 4 steps over 12 months. The longest step, age in a cool storehouse, takes 12 months (MAFF). Salt is 12 % (Kayama S. (Miyasaka Brewery) 1992). Koji grown on rice and on barley does most of the fermenting.

Key numbers
Main step12 monthsReported[MAFF-TF-kosyu_miso]Age in a cool storehouse
Salt12 %Reported[KAYAMA-1992]Mix the rice koji and barley koji with salt, then knead in the beans

What makes this one different

Most misos use one koji. Kōshū miso uses both rice koji and barley koji, so in Japanese labelling terms it is a mixed (chōgō) miso. It joins the clean taste of rice miso to the toasty richness of barley miso. Yamanashi's prefectural certification for "Kōshū blended miso" (甲州調合味噌) asks for prefectural soybeans, a mix of rice koji and barley koji, soybeans to rice and barley at 1 to 1, more barley koji than rice koji, and no preservatives [YAMANASHI-CERT].

Related ferments

Variants

  • Blended Kōshū misoRice miso and barley miso brewed separately and blended to order; now also sold as Kōshū miso [MAFF-TF-kosyu_miso].
  • Home-brewed miso (survey)In one survey of 200 Yamanashi households, 70 % made their own miso; 41 % used rice and barley koji together, 35 % barley koji alone and 20 % rice koji alone [KAYAMA-1992].
  • Fusuma miso (wheat-bran miso)Barley and wheat bran used together, mostly at 1 to 0.7–0.3; once made by 47 % of 383 farm households surveyed, now almost gone except in Kiriwara, Uenohara [KAYAMA-1992].

Safety

A 2024 review of soybean-ferment safety says mould-fermented soy foods such as miso end near pH 5, above the pH 4.5 usually aimed for to hold back pathogens, and that biogenic amines including histamine can form in soybean ferments; in one miso study a Lactobacillus starter cut histamine to 58 % of the control [CHIN-2024].

History and sources

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

Yamanashi's high ground is poorly suited to rice, so rice was hard to get, and barley was also eaten as a staple, so little of it went to koji. Making miso with both koji is said to have grown from this [MAFF-TF-kosyu_miso]. In 1991 the Yamanashi miso and soy sauce cooperative chose the rice-and-barley miso as the unified "Kōshū miso" brand, standardised its recipe and set up an inspection system [KAYAMA-1992].

  1. [MAFF-TF-kosyu_miso] MAFF, にっぽん伝統食図鑑 (Japan's traditional foods), 甲州味噌 (Kōshū miso)gov
  2. [KAYAMA-1992] Kayama S. (Miyasaka Brewery) 1992, 甲州名物ほうとうと甲州味噌 (hōtō and Kōshū miso), J. Brew. Soc. Japan 87(2):95–100, doi:10.6013/jbrewsocjapan1988.87.95paper
  3. [YAMANASHI-CERT] Yamanashi Prefecture, 山梨県農産物等認証制度 認証品目一覧 (list of certified items under the prefecture's farm-product certification scheme, FY2025), item 2 甲州調合味噌gov
  4. [CHIN-2024] Chin X.H., Elhalis H., Chow Y., Liu S.Q. 2024, Enhancing food safety in soybean fermentation through strategic implementation of starter cultures, Heliyon 10(2):e25007, doi:10.1016/j.heliyon.2024.e25007paper