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Vegetables from Nagoya and Fusō

Moriguchi-zuke (two-year lees-pickled Moriguchi daikon)守口漬

The very long, thin Moriguchi daikon is salted twice, first lightly to draw out water and then strongly so it keeps, and then buried in sake lees again and again, which lowers its salt and gives it the lees' flavour. It is finished in mirin lees and sugar, and the whole process takes two years or more, ending in an amber, sweet, crisp coil.

Fully documentedVegetables2 years

Recipe

Moriguchi-zuke (two-year lees-pickled Moriguchi daikon), a photo from Wikimedia Commons
Photo: Lombroso, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons
No fixed amounts recordedCommercial process with no published amounts. Each maker keeps its own blend of lees and its own schedule.
Moriguchi daikonRoot about 2 cm across and 1.2–1.3 m long; the longest exceed 1.8 m[maff-moriguchi-tf]
SaltA light salting, then a strong one[maff-moriguchi-tf]
Sake leesChanged several times; each firm adjusts its blend because lees vary by brewery and season[maff-moriguchi-tf][jawiki-moriguchi]
Mirin lees and sugarFor the final pickling[maff-moriguchi-tf]

Total time across the recorded steps: 2 years

Start
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Close-up: salt moving into a piece

What changes: The long daikon are packed in light salt, which draws out water and harshness

Step 1 of 4
Salt lightly at harvest
Time
Harvested in December and January, then salted at a low salt concentration
Reported
Temperature
Not documented
Salt
None given
Acidity
Not documented

The light salt draws out water and harsh taste. Output: wilted, dehydrated daikon.

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

The very long, thin Moriguchi daikon is salted twice, first lightly to draw out water and then strongly so it keeps, and then buried in sake lees again and again, which lowers its salt and gives it the lees' flavour. It is finished in mirin lees and sugar, and the whole process takes two years or more, ending in an amber, sweet, crisp coil. Made in 4 steps over 2 years. The longest step, finish in mirin lees and sugar, takes at least 2 years (MAFF にっぽん伝統食図鑑 (Japanese Traditional Foods) 2026). Salt is 9.2 % (Suzuki Masahiro 2022). Fructilactobacillus fructivorans, the lactic acid bacterium that dominated the lees and finished pickle in a related sake-lees pickle, narazuke does most of the fermenting.

Key numbers
Main stepat least 2 yearsReported[maff-moriguchi-tf][jawiki-moriguchi]Finish in mirin lees and sugar
Salt9.2 %Measured[suzuki2022][aichi2017]Coil and bury in sake lees, changing the lees several times

What makes this one different

Moriguchi-zuke is a Nara-zuke style lees pickle, but it uses mirin lees as well as sake lees, which is why it is amber and sweeter. The daikon is salted twice before the lees, and the root is very long and thin, about 1.2–1.3 m by 2 cm.

Related ferments

Variants

  • Ao-uri mirin-kasu-zukeThe same method used on green melon by the shop that invented Moriguchi-zuke.

Safety

MAFF says the strong salting lets the daikon keep for a long time, and the changes of lees then lower its salt. The spent lees held 9.2 % salt equivalent and 2.3 % alcohol, and an Aichi study found no coliforms in them after 1, 4 and 10 months of sealed storage at room temperature (Suzuki and Kurita 2017). That study tested waste lees for pig feed, not the pickle, so it gives no safety figure for what people eat.

History and sources

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

The method was devised in the Meiji era by Yamada Saikichi, a Nagoya businessman and cook, who sold it as Moriguchi daikon in mirin from 1882. Being chosen as a souvenir of the 1950 National Sports Festival in Aichi spread it across Japan (MAFF). It was also sold at Sasashima station, later Nagoya station (Japanese Wikipedia).

Starter
The sources we found do not say how its fermentation begins.
  1. [maff-moriguchi-tf] MAFF にっぽん伝統食図鑑 (Japanese Traditional Foods), 守口漬 (Aichi), read 2026-10gov
  2. [suzuki2022] Suzuki Masahiro 2022, 地域未利用資源の養豚用飼料利用に関する研究 (use of unused local resources as pig feed), doctoral thesis, Nihon University; chapter 1 analyses spent Moriguchi-zuke leespaper
  3. [aichi2017] Suzuki M. and Kurita T. 2017, 肥育豚に対する守口漬残さの給与が豚の嗜好性及び水分出納に及ぼす影響 (feeding spent Moriguchi-zuke lees to fattening pigs), Bulletin of the Aichi Agricultural Research Center 49:139-142paper
  4. [naist2025] Nara Institute of Science and Technology, Naraya Honten and Mori Narazuke 2025, 奈良漬は発酵食品だった (press release on the study published in Applied and Environmental Microbiology, DOI 10.1128/aem.01730-25), 21 November 2025other
  5. [jawiki-moriguchi] Japanese Wikipedia, 守口漬 (歴史, 製法), read 2026-10wiki