Skip to main content
Support

Browse by category

All categories
Home

Vegetables from All of Akita, Japan

Natazuke (hatchet-cut daikon in amazake)なた漬け

Raw daikon is hacked into rough chunks with a nata, a heavy pruning hatchet, so the cut faces are ragged and soak up flavour. The chunks are scalded, salted briefly, drained and then pickled for about a week in amazake (a sweet rice-koji drink) and sugar under a weight.

DocumentedVegetables8 days – 9 days

Recipe

Amounts from a sourceAn easy-to-make batch, from the book あきた郷味風土記 (Akita Rural Life Research Group Council) on MAFF's regional cuisine site. Every household has its own version.
Daikon2 kg[maff-natazuke]
Salt40 g[maff-natazuke]
Sugar60 g[maff-natazuke]
Amazake, ready-made400 cc[maff-natazuke]
Red chilli1 small[maff-natazuke]

Total time across the recorded steps: 8 days – 9 days

Start
Drag the bar or press Play

What changes: Peeled daikon is hacked into rough chunks with a heavy hatchet

Step 1 of 4
Peel and hack into rough chunks with a nata
Time
Not documented
Temperature
Not documented
Salt
None given
Acidity
Not documented
Flavour
Not documented
Texture
ragged cut faces that take up flavour right to the middle
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

Raw daikon is hacked into rough chunks with a nata, a heavy pruning hatchet, so the cut faces are ragged and soak up flavour. The chunks are scalded, salted briefly, drained and then pickled for about a week in amazake (a sweet rice-koji drink) and sugar under a weight. Made in 4 steps over 8 days – 9 days. The longest step, drain, add amazake and sugar, and weight down, takes 7 days (MAFF うちの郷土料理 (Our Regional Cuisines) 2026). Salt is 2 % (MAFF うちの郷土料理 (Our Regional Cuisines) 2026).

Key numbers
Main step7 daysReported[maff-natazuke]Drain, add amazake and sugar, and weight down
Salt2 %Reported[maff-natazuke]Salt in a tub

What makes this one different

Natazuke is a nama-zuke (fresh pickle) of raw daikon, like kakizuke, rather than a dried or smoked daikon like iburigakko. The hatchet cut, not a knife, is what gives it its name and texture.

Related ferments

Variants

  • Yokote (Sakaimachi) versionThe Akita prefecture survey (2024) records it as daikon pickled in salt and amazake, where the amazake gave sweetness when sugar was scarce; it is now split with a knife, not a hatchet.

History and sources

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

MAFF notes that Akita is rich in forest resources such as natural Akita cedar, so forestry was strong and many households owned a nata.

  1. [maff-natazuke] MAFF うちの郷土料理 (Our Regional Cuisines), なた漬け (Akita), recipe from あきた郷味風土記 (秋田県農山漁村生活研究グループ協議会), read 2026-10gov
  2. [akita-kyodoshoku] 秋田県教育委員会 (Akita Prefectural Board of Education), 秋田県の郷土食 (Akita's regional foods), 秋田県文化財調査報告書第540集, March 2024, 郷土食等一覧表 (survey table)gov