10 ｜ Satoyama Jujo / Wild Vegetables
~ ♪ Goooo (the sound of a river with melting snow)
As the snow from the mountains melts into Satoyama Jujo river in April, the sound of the water becomes louder.
"It's a wonderful current, isn’t it? I went to the mountain this morning, but the amount of water in the river is totally different. Today, the weather is good and the snow is melting nicely. It’s amazing."
Mr. Kuwano added:
“I think it’s water for Satoyama Jujo’s cuisine.”
20 minutes by car from Echigo Yuzawa Station you find Satoyama Jujo on a dead end road, so it always makes me wonder if I am going the right way or not. There is a magnificent mountain in the background, and the water in the forest feeds an abundance of wild plants.
“Look over there. Three years ago, I picked these from the mountain, and look how much they have grown since.”
Japanese parsley leaves drift past on a stream that crosses the landing just outside the entrance of Satoyama Jujo. Mr. Kuwakino picks up a leaf on the spot and puts it in his mouth. Without thinking, I do the same. The flavor is simple, yet savoury.
"Please enjoy this soup made from the wild plants picked today".
Satoyama Jujo’s dinner service began with this phrase on the day we stayed, like a premonition that reverberated throughout the long history of the Snow Country. Ah, here’s where the story begins.
※No Restaurant Service（Limited to Guests）
Address：1209-6 Oozawa, Minami Ounuma
Phone Number：025-783-6777
URL：http://www.satoyama-jujo.com/stay/access.php
──To learn the rules of harvesting. “To Know Ecology,” “To see with the minds eye.”
An interview with, Mr. Kuwano of Satoyama Jujo↓
---What does “A-Class Gourmet” mean to you, Mr. Kuwakino?
You might be surprised to learn that, when most people imagine “local cuisine,” they’re actually envisioning post-War cuisine. Recently the B-Class Gourmet has started including a category for local cuisine, but I thought about who it is that makes true local cuisine, and the only people still doing it are about 90 years old by now. I strongly feel we have to preserve their tradition. This region is steeped in Jomon-era history, and I think “A-Class Gourmet” level food is a bridge to that history.
---What makes the wild veggies at Satoyama Jujo different from that of other restaurants?
It’s the snow and humidity, basically. Recently, I ate wild vegetables in Kansai, and they tasted completely different. I don’t know if it’s the temperature of the snow, or the humidity, but there’s a stark difference between wild veggies grown in snowy regions and those that grow in drier climates. You can see it here on years where we get little snow, the vegetables are more astringent and bitter, especially the udo and the wild plants that grow in the mountains.
---I have to be honest with you, I never liked vegetables until I came here.
Even if they’re the same vegetables, they’re somehow more bitter in other places. Of course, the ones grown here are also bitter, but that’s not all there is to them. They’re also a bit sweet and very fragrant. There’s also spicy and sour varieties, too. You can clearly taste all those elements. There’s about five different flavors packed into any given vegetable.
---Five flavors? Normally you can perceive around two, right?
The difference is that the flavors are deeper, I suppose. That’s why when I cook, I try my best not to ruin them. I can’t cook the same dishes all the time, though, because wild vegetables are only in season for a short time. I have a lot of dishes I created through trial and error, but for this one specifically, I really wanted to work around that single ingredient. It’s like, I wanted to create a dish I could only serve today.
---Right, it’s like you can’t be experimenting every hour of every day.
In my six years living here, I’ve learned that these wild vegetables are only in season for about 10 days.
---The window for harvesting them is that small?
Just this morning I told the staff that we needed to take advantage of the good weather and gather scouring rush while we could. They grow in bamboo-like segmented stalks, and when they do they become inedible, which means that scouring rush season ends for us tomorrow. Another frustration is, and I’m sure anyone that cooks for a living understands this, but when you plan out a recipe for the following year, and the time comes to make it, you realize it’s boring. You then end up making something completely different!
---It’s amazing that this place has been populated for so long. 5000 years is a long time!
It’s very rare, maybe even from a historical standpoint. Japan has retained a strong connection to aboriginal cooking traditions because it wasn’t invaded by other countries. If you take European history, for example, you’d be hard pressed to find a place where the same race has lived for so long until now. Walnut shells have seemingly been found in ancient kitchen middens throughout Japan. You can tell from their sheer abundance that walnuts were cultivated back in the Jomon period and you can get a full picture of how far-reaching that age was. I think part of the Snow Country’s charm is that you can trace its history through these aboriginal sites, all the way back to the Jomon Period and perhaps beyond, to say nothing of the fact that you can taste fragments of that ancient food culture.
---Do you try to convey the context of the Jomon period to your customers?
I try to as much as possible. I serve horse chestnut mochi with crushed chestnuts spread on top, and garnish them with horse chestnut leaves. I want to create dishes that paint a scene of the age in order to convey the ingredients used in older times. While we can only harvest the leaves while they’re in season, we still manage to gather a lot of them. It’s all because we are located where we are.
---I’m in the middle of reading “Hokuetsu Seppu” so I wanted to ask: do you think it’s strange that people continue to live in such a snow-ridden place?
This winter, I went with a hunter into the mountains. Back then, I worried about leaving tracks in the snow and wondered if the Jomon people did too. Then I heard about the way they used the holes left by footfalls to set traps, and I thought, “Wow, they really knew how to fully utilize the snow.” It’s the same with “snow rooms.” I noticed that the only reason ancient people could preserve food was thanks to the snow, which they used to make these primitive fridges. I’m not going to say it’s easy living in a place that gets as much snow as we do, but in ancient times when survival was everything, they could hunt and store the food they prepared. From that perspective, I imagine it must have been an easy place for people to live in.
---By the way, how did you meet the mentor who taught you how to gather wild vegetables?
I started talking to him, and because he was so open-minded, he just said, “All right, let’s go.” Then he suddenly led me up this insane mountain, and after that we would go every day. He must have thought I was really motivated, because to this day he dotes on me a bit. Just yesterday we were gathering near a precarious cliff, and he said, “Don’t slip or you’ll die.” We both risked our lives for those greens. (laughs)
---Do you feel like you still have a lot to learn after 5 years?
Absolutely. There is so much to learn from gathering these ingredients. My mentor would always tell me I had to learn about the ecology of where I gather. People think eating wild vegetables is basically just eating springtime shoots and buds, but those buds grow in the summer and their composition changes entirely. And by the time they’ve changed into their true form, your culinary ideas will have also changed, and you start seeing more possibilities
---I see. You’re basically saying to look for more than just the buds.
That’s right. Look at where they’re planted and how they grow. I was often told to “open my third eye.”
---”Third eye,” as in your greater instincts, right?
Right. I’d be told that I couldn’t find anything because I was only “looking with my eyes.” I didn’t understand at first what “using my third eye” meant, but if you look at the ecology as a whole, you’ll start grasping it. When I go gathering with my mentor, sometimes he’ll screech the car to a stop and say “Found it!” But, you can’t see it with your eyes because these wild vegetables are buried under the soil. So, he knows, even though it’s impossible to see where while sitting in the car. I’m not that good yet, but little by little I’ve had moments of clarity like that, where I just sense where a good haul is.
---That sixth sense sounds like a great asset!
Yes! My mentor truly is amazing. He’s very vivacious.
---You’ll have to take over for him someday, I’m sure.
That’s right. I want to carry on that legacy forever. I think that is true “A-Class Gourmet.”
Maybe it’s because where there is snow, there are tracks, and where there are tracks people can survive and maybe even thrive.
Satoyama Jujo is truly a place worth visiting if you’re seeking to understand what it means to be “A-Class Gourmet.” We asked Mr. Kuwakino about the places he recommends visiting while at Satoyama.
“There is one. We call it the ‘shrine,’” he said.
It won’t appear on any search engine. Additionally, he said that you can only visit it in May, because the winter snows block off the road, and thickets grow in full during the summer and cover the shrine itself. Because of that, there’s only a narrow window where one can actually see the shrine.
“They say that long ago there was a monk that secluded himself in Mt. Hakkai, and that’s why there’s another shrine in the mountain. We try to pass through there when we go gathering.”
Mr. Kuwakino told us he learned about the shrine from a local that grew up playing around the area.
“People from Osawa come to visit every year. It’s a tough trail to hike, but the local elders can do it. I can make the hike in about 30 minutes because I’m used to it, but older people might take over an hour. Still, they all come to visit to this day. They hold a lot of respect for the mountain.”
Just what kind of shrine could it be? The place shown on your PIN only displays the entrance to the road that passes by it. To learn about how to get there, please inquire with the staff. And for those who unfortunately miss their chance, we will be uploading photos right here.
