New Year's Cuisine in Kagoshima: The Zoni Eaten by the Lord and the Roots of Amami's Keihan / A Kagoshima Guide by a University Professor of Tourism Studies

1. Introduction

With December coming to an end, many people are likely starting their preparations for the New Year. Every year, I have always started writing my New Year's cards early. I have been making them myself on my computer, but since the charm of handwriting is hard to give up, I always make sure to handwrite a few lines about my recent life on each one. Although I have significantly reduced the number of cards I send out now, even just looking at New Year's cards shows us that our customary New Year's events are changing in form.

New Year's cuisine has also been changing moment by moment. Since store-bought Osechi dishes first appeared in 1967 (Showa 42), they have become a familiar presence today. Amidst this, handmade dishes that utilize traditional ingredients are also deeply rooted in the region.
This time, let's take a closer look at the history of representative New Year's cuisine in Kagoshima.

2. Zoni and First Shrine Visits of the Shimadzu Clan Lords

The taste of "Grilled Shrimp Zoni" has been passed down through the Shimadzu family for generations. The "Kuma shrimp" caught in the Ariake Sea (Shiranui Sea) off the coast of Izumi was preferred for the "grilled shrimp." Aiming for weather with wind speeds of about 5m/s, they throw a rake-like iron beam into the sea, drag it along the seabed, and let the wind power move the boat. A net is attached to the back of the beam, and they catch the Kuma shrimp by scraping them out from where they hide in the sandy seabed.

The Kuma shrimp and Kuruma shrimp from off the coast of Izumi were presented to the Shimadzu family as "Izumi shrimp" since the feudal era. Even today, they remain a high-class ingredient representing the New Year in Kagoshima.

By the way, the taste of the Zoni passed down in the Shimadzu family feels quite simple from our perspective. Based on a broth made from grilled shrimp, the ingredients are only mochi, taro, and greens, but it is characterized by the size of the approximately 20cm Kuma shrimp and the way it brings out the flavor of the ingredients.

For the Lord, a New Year's event alongside the "Grilled Shrimp Zoni" was the pilgrimage to the Kanmachi Five Shrines. The five shrines refer to the Suwa (Minamikata), Gion (Yasaka), Inari, Kasuga, and Wakamiya shrines. Among them, the Suwa Shrine is known for having been deeply revered by successive heads of the family as the tutelary deity of the Shimadzu family.

The "Grilled Shrimp Zoni" eaten by the Lord can be enjoyed as a winter-only menu item at Sengan-en, the Shimadzu family's villa. Visiting the Kanmachi Five Shrines is also recommended as a hidden traditional Kagoshima event.

3. Traditional Taste: Tonkotsu Cuisine

When it comes to standard Kagoshima cuisine, there are many delicacies using black pork. "Tonkotsu Ramen" is a prime example, but the one that boasts the longest history by far is "Tonkotsu." It is made by cutting bone-in pork into square pieces, stir-frying them to remove the fat, then simmering them in water and shochu, and finally adding konjac, daikon radish, and other ingredients along with sake and sugar. The meat and cartilage are both so tender they seem to melt, and since it is low in fat, it is loved by women and the elderly alike; it can truly be called a "prefectural soul food."

Now, while there are not many opportunities to eat Tonkotsu as a New Year's dish on the Kagoshima mainland, it is considered indispensable for the New Year in the Amami region.

Nagoshi Sagent, who was exiled to Amami Oshima in 1850 (Kaei 3) due to the Oyura Disturbance (Takasaki Collapse), a family feud of the Satsuma Domain that occurred at the end of the Edo period, is a person who left behind a vivid record of the five years until he was pardoned. One of these is the "Nanto Zatsuwa," which is known as a first-class historical document for learning about the food and customs of Amami.
In this, there is a record that pork was highly valued as a New Year's dish in the Amami region. At the end of the year, each household would slaughter the pigs they were raising, and for the New Year, "Tonkotsu" seasoned with miso or soy sauce—slightly different from the mainland—would appear. Also, there is a theory that the rice cooked with salted pork (Butamin), which was made into a preserved food by salting it at the end of the year as a dish to entertain guests, became the origin of Keihan, the traditional cuisine that represents Amami today.

[Reference] Noriko Imamura (2010): "Food and Sweets of Bakumatsu Amami as Seen by Nagoshi Sagent," Nanpo Shinsha.