Koji and Miso

The day I arrived at the farm in Miyama, Yasuko walked with me down to a neighbor’s house to watch the koji making. Koji is the fermented-rice culture that is added to rice mash to make sake and mirin, to cooked soybeans and grain to make miso, to soaked soybeans to make natto, to leftover rice and water to make amazake … It’s indispensable in traditional farm communities, though now rarely used in the cities, where manufactured and preserved foods are commercially available. Traditional koji making is a trade and a skill passed down in families from generation to generation. The last artisanal koji makers in the northern part of Kyoto prefecture are Mr. and Mrs. Hirai, neighbors of the Kandas. Their grown sons and daughters don’t want the work, so they may be the last of a long line. Kojimaking is a strenuous fall and winter activity that begins after the rice harvest and brings the family income during the winter months.