Japanese cooking uses spice sparingly and precisely: dashi and soy form the base, with wasabi, shichimi, sansho, yuzu, ginger and shiso adding pointed accents.
Overview¶
Japanese cooking famously builds on umami — the savoury depth of dashi, soy sauce and miso — rather than on a wide range of spices. Where spice and herbs do appear, they tend to arrive as yakumi, sharp accents added at the end or at the table: a dab of grated wasabi, a pinch of shichimi, a slice of pickled ginger, a scatter of shiso. The aim is to lift and contrast the main ingredient, and to mark the season, not to create a layered spice base.
That restraint is only part of the picture. Japan also has a popular, mild, sweet curry (kare raisu) introduced via the British navy in the Meiji era, spicy ramen, and Korean- and Chinese-influenced dishes that use far more chilli and garlic.
The core palette¶
- Wasabi: true wasabi (Eutrema japonicum) rhizome, grated fresh on a sharkskin or fine grater, is aromatic and briefly pungent. Most "wasabi" outside high-end restaurants is horseradish, mustard and colouring. See mustard-oils.
- ginger: grated fresh for soups, simmered dishes and dipping sauces; pickled (gari with sushi, red beni shoga with yakisoba and gyudon).
- Sansho (Zanthoxylum piperitum): a relative of Sichuan pepper with a more citrus-lemony note, dusted over grilled eel (unagi). The young leaves, kinome, are a spring garnish.
- Chilli: ichimi (one-flavour, straight chilli powder) and shichimi togarashi (seven-flavour), which typically adds sansho, orange peel, sesame, hemp or poppy seed, nori and ginger.
- Karashi: hot Japanese mustard, served with oden, natto and tonkatsu.
- sesame: white and black, toasted and ground in a suribachi for goma-ae dressings.
- Citrus: yuzu zest and juice, sudachi and kabosu. Yuzu kosho is a fermented paste of yuzu peel, green or red chilli and salt, native to Kyushu.
- Herbs: green and red shiso, mitsuba (Japanese wild parsley), myoga (ginger buds), and spring onion in huge quantities.
Regional differences¶
Japanese regional cooking differs in its seasonings more than its spices. Kanto (Tokyo) uses darker soy and stronger flavours; Kansai (Osaka, Kyoto) uses lighter usukuchi soy and more delicate dashi, and Kyoto's temple and kaiseki traditions refined vegetarian shojin ryori. Kyushu is the home of yuzu kosho and pork-bone tonkotsu ramen. Okinawa, historically the separate Ryukyu Kingdom, uses more pork, bitter melon, turmeric (ukon) and island chilli infused in awamori spirit (koregusu). Hokkaido leans on dairy, seafood and lamb.
Key techniques¶
- Dashi: kombu and katsuobushi (or shiitake) steeped briefly — the stock behind soups, simmered dishes and dipping sauces.
- Grating: wasabi, ginger and daikon are grated to order, because their pungency and aroma fade within minutes. Wasabi reaches its peak a minute or two after grating.
- Suribachi grinding: a ridged ceramic mortar for sesame and miso. See grinding-spices.
- Pickling (tsukemono): salt, rice bran, vinegar and miso pickles, often with shiso, ginger and chilli.
- Seasoning at the table: shichimi on udon, sansho on eel, karashi on oden.
💡 Buy shichimi small
Shichimi loses the citrus and sansho aromas quickly. Buy the smallest jar, keep it sealed, and replace it every few months; see how-long-spices-last.
Landmark dishes¶
Sushi and sashimi (with wasabi and gari), tempura, soba and udon (with shichimi and spring onion), unagi kabayaki with sansho, tonkatsu with karashi, oden, miso soup, yakitori (salt or tare, with shichimi), gyudon with beni shoga, umeboshi (pickled plums coloured with red shiso), Japanese curry rice, and ramen in its many regional forms.
Stocking the cupboard¶
- Shichimi togarashi and ichimi
- Toasted white and black sesame
- Fresh ginger; pickled ginger
- Kombu and katsuobushi (or instant dashi), soy sauce, mirin and sake
- Sansho powder
- Tubed wasabi and karashi for everyday use — check the label for real wasabi content
- Yuzu kosho
- shiso — easy to grow from seed in summer; see growing-herbs-indoors