Viamver®︎ yeast breeds umami, and depending on how it is used, it can bring out the nuances of cheese. We have gone through a lot of trial and error to see if we can create a regular menu item that expresses this characteristic well.
Risotto is one of the specialties of German chef Jonas, and he used to make it according to the season upon request. Also, at a dinner once, Chef Sato suggested a risotto made with minor grains. Based on the experience and knowledge of chefs from Japan and abroad, we have repeatedly tested seasonal ingredients such as fruits and mushrooms, which led to the completion of the current menu.
“16 KINDS of FERMENTED MILLET RISOTTO” does not use meat, fish, or cheese, but brings out the umami of akitakomachi and 16 types of minor grains to achieve a taste that is second to none in so-called cheese risotto. Fermented shiitake mushrooms have a yeast fermentation that suppresses the aroma unique to shiitake mushrooms and concentrates the umami of guanylic acid and glutamic acid, while fermented kiwi transforms the sweetness of the fruit into the acidity of citric acid and lactic acid. Each of these fermented flavors is combined with Viamver®︎ yeast to create this risotto. We hope you will enjoy it.
【16 KINDS of FERMENTED MILLET RISOTTO】 Vegetable Bouillon and Viamver®︎ Yeast Fermented Millet Risotto is meat and fish milk free and has a thick flavor. Fermented mushrooms and fermented kiwi paste add umami and sourness. Various fermented vegetable salad is juicy with sea foie gras, tofu mousse, nuts and flakes.
【VARIOUS FERMENTED VEGETABLE SALAD with VIAMVER®︎ SEA FOIE GRAS & TOFU MOUSSE】 Chef Sato and his staff added fermented sea foie gras and tofu mousse and vegetable flakes to the succulent vegetarian-style salad that Jonas pursued with bitter roasted nuts and Viamver®︎ yogurt dressing, resulting in a variety of fermented vegetable salads.
The monthly magazine “PROJECT DESIGN” wrote an article about Yamamo’s efforts under the title of “Legacy-Based Social Change from a Brewery”. It was also featured in the gravure at the beginning of the magazine, and I believe it provided a comprehensive understanding of our efforts to date.
In addition to brushing up on the company’s philosophy, I would like to continue with these initiatives, such as organizational development to reorganize teams, product development based on innovative basic research, development of inbound and outbound services, and regional development to regenerate from the local level, in order to create the ideal environment and situation. I hope to continue these efforts to create an ideal environment and situation. I hope you will read this article. _mediainfo._magazine
Akita Prefecture Project Nippon Yamamo Miso and Soy Sauce Brewing Company : Rebranding 150 Years of Tradition
Legacy-based Social Change from a Brewery
In Yuzawa City, Akita Prefecture, there is the Yamamo Miso and Soy Sauce Brewing Company, which has been in business for over 150 years since its founding in the late Edo period. Although it is a long-established brewery, Yamamo Miso and Soy Sauce is also making efforts to disseminate its culture not only domestically but also to the rest of the world by building a gallery and a cafe. We interviewed Mr. Yasushi Takahashi, the seventh generation head of the brewery, who aims to fuse tradition and innovation, about his thoughts and future business plans.
Yasushi Takahashi Managing Director, TAKAMO & Corp. / Seventh generation of Yamamo Miso and Soy Sauce Brewing Company Rebranding the brewery and starting overseas expansion. He discovered Viamver® yeast in the 10th year of test brewing. Formed a team ASTRONOMICA® with researchers, chefs, architects, and artists, and applied it to menu development. With fermentation as “coexistence with the ecosystem,” the team reconstructs tradition with a creative aesthetic sense, incorporating the context of urban development and social change at home and abroad.
事業継承後は、「“Life is Voyage” 世界の食文化と和の調味料が融合し、進化していくこと」を新たな企業理念に掲げ、2012年に初の海外輸出に成功。また、「土地や建物に宿るレガシーを見出し、新たなコンテンツとして発信する」ことを目指し、100年以上前に4代目が作庭した庭に融雪装置を整備し、本来の形を維持しながらも持続可能にしたり、蔵の一部を改装してアートギャラリーとカフェを新設したりした。2017年からは、蔵や醸造工程を見学できるインバウンド向けのファクトリーツアーも開始している。
Carrying on a traditional industry while pursuing our own style
Yamamo Miso and Soy Sauce Brewing Company was established in 1867 in Iwasaki, Yuzawa City in southeastern Akita Prefecture, and has been brewing miso and soy sauce for over 150 years. The area, where the tranquil Minase River flows, was an important center for waterborne trade and prospered as a castle town and post town. Seeing a need for miso and soy sauce, the founder, Takahashi Mosuke, began making miso using the beautiful water and richly flavored rice of Iwasaki. That was the beginning of Yamamo.
Today, Yamamo is led by the seventh generation, Mr. Yasushi Takahashi. He originally wanted to be an architect and “had no intention of taking over the family business,” says Yasushi, who majored in architecture at university. However, as he was about to graduate, he questioned his own values and decided to return to his hometown, saying, “If I don’t take over the family business, I will regret it.
After taking over the business, he set up a new corporate philosophy, “‘Life is Voyage’: the fusion and evolution of the world’s food culture and Japanese seasonings,” and succeeded in exporting his products overseas for the first time in 2012. The company also aims to “discover the legacy of the land and buildings and transmit it as new content. In 2017, the company began offering factory tours for inbound visitors to see the brewery and the brewing process.
In 2017, the company began offering factory tours for inbound visitors, where they can tour the brewery and the brewing process. “We aim to become the final destination by digging deep into the history and culture of our company and the region, and layering the contents in the brewery. Traditional industries connect the thoughts of our predecessors and lead to the present day. We believe that it is the role of traditional industries to convey messages that transcend time through industry, culture, and art, and to allow visitors and local residents to experience them with a sense of beauty.
One of his challenges is to research new yeasts and develop products using them. One of his challenges is to research new yeasts and develop products using them. While conducting test brewing at the brewery, Tai discovered a new yeast and presented it at the Japanese Society of Brewing Research.
“The yeast, which he named Viamver®, could be used to brew miso, soy sauce, and wine, and also had the unusual property of improving the meat quality of meat and fish.
“Typically, yeast used for brewing sake is killed by salt, so it cannot be used for cooking. However, Viamver was a rare yeast that could be used for both sake and cooking. The probability of discovering such a yeast would be as astronomical as discovering a new planet. For this reason, we combined the words for planet and amber and named it Viamver®, and the research and development team ASTRONOMICA®, meaning the ancient universe.
Development of a full course using the same yeast for the entire menu
After the discovery of the yeast, Mr. Yasushi worked with chefs from Japan and abroad who supervise the café, as well as researchers who had conducted joint research on the yeast, to develop a menu using the yeast, and created a full course using the yeast in all dishes. It is said that no other course in the world uses the same yeast for all the dishes.
“There are three stages of yeast fermentation: the growth stage, the steady state stage, and the convergence stage, and the best time to use yeast is different for each dish. The best time to use yeast fermentation liquid differs from dish to dish, so we repeatedly experiment with each dish to find out which time of the year is best. The taste and aroma of the yeast fungus changes when the wine is fresh and when it is aged, so the chef decides the taste of each dish accordingly and chooses the wine to go with it.
What he would like to do in the future is to make beer. The company has already started brewing wine using a new yeast through joint research with a research center in Akita Prefecture. With its traditional and innovative technology, the company has conducted workshops and presentations at international development organizations such as NION, an urban development team in Berlin, and SPACE10, a research and development team in Copenhagen. This fall, they will share their efforts with “MONO JAPAN” in Amsterdam. They would like to collaborate with overseas manufacturers in the creation of beer.
“We want to develop a beer that combines yeast from Japanese seasonings with the food culture of the continent, and market it both in Japan and overseas. We are living in an age where various experiments are being conducted to see how Japanese and Western cultures can be fused together. I believe that Japan’s traditional industries will be able to demonstrate their strength in such an era.
Fusing Japanese and Western Food Cultures for Legacy-Based Social Change
The brewing industry itself is about cultivating the region,” says Mr. Yasushi.
“By turning the grains grown in the region into miso, soy sauce, sake, etc., the value of agricultural products can be increased tenfold or even a hundredfold. This will enrich the producers and support the entire region. If we can brush up on this kind of industry and successfully incorporate it into the modern world, we can reweave our history and climate and redefine our regional identity.
Furthermore, it is the mission of those involved in traditional industries to act as the standard-bearers.
“I want to transform Yamamo into a place that pursues regional sustainability while maintaining the foundation of the miso and soy sauce industries. I call it ‘legacy-based social change.
At the same time as protecting and nurturing traditional industries, I want to discover what only I can do and create new innovations. In order to pursue both, Mr. Tai feels that “the best way is to explore the roots of your own birth and upbringing.
“I think this approach can be applied not only to those who inherit a business, but actually to everyone.”
The development team, ASTRONOMICA®, is currently expanding its activities to include architects and artists from outside the company. They are collaborating on a project basis to create a variety of activities in the community.
For example, this summer they launched a community garden project to revive an abandoned field owned by Yamamo and open it to the local community. This will be used as a test case, and its application will be expanded to the entire Iwasaki region, with the goal of reducing the amount of abandoned land to zero in pursuit of regional sustainability.
“We are living in an age of infectious diseases, and people all over the world are searching for the next way of life and environment. We believe that the local brewing industry, which once cultivated the region, can take on a new role by connecting with the world’s culture and industry, and advocate a way of being that is appropriate for the next generation.
We believe that the local brewing industry, which once cultivated the region, can play a new role in connecting with global culture and industry, and advocate a way of being that is appropriate for the next generation. The role of the local in a changing world may be to create opportunities to think about structural changes in society as a whole, while respecting the local way of being.
○About “PROJECT DESIGN” Business Concept Monthly is a business magazine based on the concept of fostering the “conceptual ability” to develop new markets and providing information that leads to start-ups, new businesses, and regional revitalization.
Many of the interns who visit Yamamo share our current efforts and are willing to share their journey with us. However, many of them have yet to develop a clear vision or direction for their future. On the other hand, there are many people in our company who have found their own direction, and spending time together in such an environment can be difficult for interns. In such an environment, I think Gorai-san faced the direction of the future that everyone goes through.
In addition to her regular duties as an office and café staff member, Gorai-san has taken responsibility for the revitalization of the community garden and other local projects. She is from an urban area, but the fact that she was able to solve local problems such as abandoned land, sowing seeds, harvesting them, cooking them in the café, and guiding tours all in one go may have helped her to find something that she is confident about. I am happy to have been able to provide the site and environment that created such an opportunity in the months she spent with us. I will continue to watch over her as she moves forward into the next phase of her career. _internreport
I found out about Yamamo Miso and Soy Sauce Brewery in the spring of my senior year of college, after I had decided to postpone my study abroad due to Corona and had not decided what I wanted to do in the future. It was a miso and soy sauce brewery with a café, and when I visited the website, there were tabs for ART and ASTRONOMICA. I was interested in both art and science, so I intuitively thought it sounded interesting, and that’s when I contacted them. Looking back after working there for about four months, I don’t think I have ever experienced such a dense period of time in my life where I changed so much. Before I came to Yamamo, I had a wide variety of interests, but I didn’t try to get into them, and I lived my life half-heartedly, with no sense of self in any of them. However, being involved with the people who work here has made me realize that I didn’t know how to do anything hard and was afraid to follow my dreams.
While the team members have changed a lot since the spring, I have been the main person working on Yamamo’s field and the main house project. There are many emotions that I have learned through growing vegetables and the hard work of converting abandoned land into fields and cleaning up a large house that had not been inhabited for a while, but they have given me not only a sense of accomplishment, but also an opportunity to express myself that had been sleeping deep inside. I am grateful to have been in an environment where I could receive some form of feedback on my daily output, which encouraged me to grow. From the fall, I will be living in Tokyo and starting to pursue my dream, which is becoming clearer. I have just taken the first step towards my dream, and I believe that after learning how to deal with the things I love in the past four months, I will be able to jump into a new world with a little more confidence than before, even if I leave Yamamo.
Karin Gorai Yamamo Miso and Soy Sauce Brewing Company, intern at the Social Change Division. Enrolled in Akita International University to experience multiculturalism through daily life. She spent a year of her Corona disaster in her hometown of Osaka, and lived in Akita again while waiting for an opportunity to study abroad in Estonia, but it was decided to cancel her study abroad. Currently, she is interested in hospitality, and is exploring the relationship between art and food culture.
In urban and community development, how we address public space is key to our projects, and the Brooklyn urban development team we visited on our 2016 trip to Central and North America created the impetus for this by strategically using underutilized land for public use. In addition, Takahashi, the seventh generation, participated in a social innovation program for food and agriculture in Seattle in 2015, and observed the fieldwork of solving social issues through community gardens there. Based on this knowledge, we have come to think that we can play a part in the development of the region by turning the abandoned farmland owned by Yamamo into a project and using it as a “COMMUNITY GARDEN” for public use.
The concept of public use of land has been around for several years, but we have not had the opportunity to implement it due to manpower issues, relationships with local people, and compatibility with the local environment. With the increasing number of high school and college students coming and going over the past few years, and the generational change in employees, we finally decided to start this summer. We will organize him and her, and through the utilization of abandoned farmland, induce diverse exchanges such as intergenerational communication, and through the cooperation of diverse attributes, revitalize the region and realize individual skill improvement and career development.
With the cooperation of Yuzawa City, the “YAMAMO COMMUNITY GARDEN PROJECT” will be published in the “Kashimakanpo”, the local public relations magazine for the Iwasaki area, and will be shared widely with the local community. Our goal is that this project, which includes education and intergenerational exchange based on citizen activities, will lead to the regeneration of the region.
.
[ Community Garden Case Study ]
1.Preservation of indigenous species Gardens and fields created to protect not only improved varieties but also “native species” that have been optimized and rooted in the climate. 2.Ecosystem maintenance A community garden created to maintain the ecosystem of a nearby lake. 3.Racial issues Community gardens created to protect neighborhoods for people of color. 4.Poverty problem A community garden to solve the problem of poverty, where anyone can take home fruits and vegetables from the garden.
Yamamo Miso and Soy Sauce Brewing Company is launching a community garden project in cooperation with university and high school students in the prefecture. Community gardens are not planned, established, and operated by the government, but by local residents as a voluntary activity. The abandoned farmland owned by Yamamo will be used as a test case, and its application will be expanded to the entire Iwasaki area, with the goal of reducing the number of abandoned farmlands to zero, in pursuit of regional sustainability. We will welcome young interns from universities and high school students to promote diverse communication. In the future, we will create lawns and hills in the community garden, making it a playground for local children and a gathering place for the child-rearing generation. We will also set up a field where local residents can casually drop by and hold events during harvest time and in the community garden, creating a place for multigenerational communication in the entire community. Through this project, we aim to revitalize the community. Through this project, we hope to increase the number of human resources who will go on to revitalize the community and solve local issues. _All interns at Yamamo Miso and Soy Sauce Brewing Company
Yamamo Intern, Yuzawa Shohoku High School 3rd year student, Konoka Sasaki After I got involved with Yamamo, I wanted to be able to speak my mind independently. I want to not only listen to what others have to say, but also to add to what they have to say in order to advance the project. I’m really excited to be involved in a big project. First, we had to sort out the trash in the abandoned farmland to start the project. It was a very daunting task, but I really wanted to turn it into a field with my own hands. I am also very much looking forward to this project as I have not had many opportunities to participate in events and projects that communicate with the local community. I would be happy if more people would be interested in this project.
Yamamo Internship, Akita International University4th year student, Karin Gorai When I saw the abandoned farmland covered in weeds, I doubted whether it would really be possible to turn it into a farm. The sheer amount of weeds made me despair many times, but I think the reason why I was able to continue working on this project without giving up was because I had seen Yamamo’s ever-changing appearance from my side. Witnessing the moment when something that I thought I couldn’t change anyway was transforming, I somehow changed my mind that I should be able to turn this land full of grass and garbage into a field. Through this project, I feel that running a community garden can make a difference in the lives of the town and the people who live there. In the events I plan to organize in the future, I would like to share this realization with the local people.
The summer menu for this season is now complete. The Viamver®︎ yeast acts on the gibier meat and seasonal oysters that we have been stocking since winter to create a unique flavor. We have also prepared two original beer-based cocktails as pairings to reset the umami flavor created by Viamver®︎ yeast. The contents are designed to keep you refreshed while experiencing the hot summer. We hope you will enjoy them.
FERMENTED VENISON CONFIT with ORANGE & BERRY SAUCE | 発酵蝦夷鹿肉フィレ肉のコンフィ
発酵した蝦夷鹿肉のフィレをコンフィした後に中心部は低温調理し、表面は炙り焼きに。オレンジとベリーのソースで。 Fermented Ezo venison fillet confit, then cooked at low temperature in the center and seared on the surface. Served with an orange and berry sauce. 將發酵過的蝦夷鹿肉片裝入後,中央低溫烹製,表面烤製。 配橙汁和漿果醬。
クリーミーな象潟産生牡蠣を発酵トマトのジュレと泡ソースの酸味、Viamver®︎ソイソースのうま味で上質なガストロノミーに。 The creamy raw oysters from Kisakata are made into a fine gastronomy by the acidity of the fermented tomato gelée and foam sauce, and the umami of the Viamver®︎ soy sauce. 奶油如方產牡蠣與發酵的番茄果凍和泡沫醬的酸度,以及 Viamver®︎ 醬油的鮮味一起製成高品質的美食。
.
.
SPYCY SOUR SHANDYGAFF | スパイシーサワーシャンディガフ
レモンやグレープフルーツの柑橘ジュースにスパイスを加えたシロップと生ビールの爽やかなカクテル。 A refreshing cocktail of lemon and grapefruit citrus juices, spiced syrup, and draft beer. 一種清爽的生啤酒和糖漿雞尾酒,在檸檬和葡萄柚的柑橘汁中加入香料。
.
.
VIAMVER®︎ SALTY RED EYE | ヴィアンヴァーソルティーレッドアイ
桃太郎トマトジュースとプレミアム生ビールをViamver®︎ Saltのスノースタイルで。お好みでブラックペッパーも。 Momotaro tomato juice and premium draft beer with Viamver®︎ Salt snow style. Black pepper to taste. 桃太郎番茄汁和 Viamver®︎ Salt 雪花風格的高級生啤酒。 如果您願意,也可以使用黑胡椒。