Breakfast Around Japan: A Culinary Adventure

Breakfast with the Satō Family of Dewaya Inn

Food and Drink Lifestyle Travel Family

Menu

  • Simmered and stewed dishes prepared from local wild and cultivated vegetables (see below)
  • Toasted baguette with fuki-miso (chopped, fried butterbur shoots with seasoned miso)
  • Rice
  • Pickles
  • Miso soup with warabi (bracken fiddleheads) and aburaage (deep-fried sliced tofu)
  • “Snow carrot” juice

“I grew up thinking we were the only people who ate wild food, so I’m thrilled when travelers come all the way out here to sample our food and tell us how much they enjoyed it.”—Satō Kuniharu.

Satō Kuniharu was the second hereditary proprietor of Dewaya in Nishikawa, Yamagata Prefecture, known for its wild vegetarian cuisine. Located at the foot of Mount Gassan in the Dewa Sanzan region (named for its three sacred mountains), the inn started out almost 90 years ago as a stopping place for religious pilgrims on their way up the mountain to worship. Since then, it has become a noted dining destination, thanks to a richly varied menu centered on edible plants and mushrooms foraged in the immediate area. It was Kuniharu who named that style of cooking “sansai cuisine” and elevated it to the status of a cultural tradition in the early years of the Shōwa era (1925–89).

Today we take you behind the scenes of this storied inn, where the Satō family, spanning four generations, gathers around the breakfast table for a morning meal embodying the fertile fusion of hallowed tradition and youthful creativity. (For a closer look at the inn and its staggering variety of sansai dishes, see our interview with Chef Satō Haruki.)

The cast consists of third-generation proprietor Satō Haruhiko (age 60); his wife, inn manager (okami) Satō Akemi (56); family matriarch Satō Kikuko (88), widow of the aforementioned Kuniharu (Haruhiko’s father); Haruhiko’s eldest son, Chef Satō Haruki (29); Haruki’s wife Yumi (29); Haruki and Yumi’s two-year-old son Haruma and infant daughter Shino; and Haruki’s sister Akina (25). Such an assemblage is a rarity in today’s Japan, where nuclear-family households have become the norm.

Almost as remarkable as the number and age range of the diners is the quantity of dishes, most prepared either from wild edibles collected in the area or from vegetables that Akina cultivates in the field. Appearing alongside the traditional sansai cuisine for which the inn is famous is an unexpectedly eclectic creation: toasted baguette with a topping of fuki-miso (a condiment prepared from fried butterbur buds, and seasoned miso).

The task of managing day-to-day operations at a Japanese ryokan (both front and back of house) is typically in the hands of a woman—the okami, as she is known in Japanese. Over breakfast, okami Satō Akemi reminisces on the challenges she faced as a young bride when she first moved to Nishikawa from her hometown of Tendō.

“Even though both communities are in Yamagata, there’s a completely different culture here at the foot of Mount Gassan. In my first year, I had my hands full just learning the names of all the edible plants and when they came into season. Some of them resemble each other quite closely, but each has its own unique texture, taste, and so forth, and it took me a long time to distinguish them.”

Akemi’s duties mounted quickly, leaving her little time to attend to her first-born, especially at mealtime. While she rushed about, grandpa Kuniharu took over as nanny, holding little Haruki on his lap, enclosed in his kimono, and making sure he got plenty to eat. Haruki, who currently oversees the kitchen, says, “My early memories of family meals in that warm, caring ambience are the foundation on which I base my own cooking.”

Breakfast with the Satō family helps one understand the unaffected warmth that pervades Dewaya in all its aspects. You can think of it as yin to the yang of ascetic mountain worship, so integral to the inn’s history. Watching the lively interaction of four generations of Satōs around the breakfast table, one has no doubt as to the long-term survival of that spiritual and cultural heritage.

The Satō family’s breakfast table displays a wide array of healthful, enticing dishes featuring local vegetables and edible plants.

Akakogomi (red ostrich fern fiddleheads) in sesame dressing
Akakogomi (red ostrich fern fiddleheads) in sesame dressing

Stewed zenmai (Asian royal fern fiddleheads)

Soused shidoke (Parasenecio delphiniifolius) leaves

Pickled warabi (bracken fiddleheads), cucumber, celery, and snow carrots

Kiriboshi daikon (dried shredded daikon radish) stewed with aburaage and carrots

A modern salad consisting of tomatoes, nagaimo (Chinese yam), snow carrots, snap peas, and broad beans

Dewaya preserves the old sign that beckoned pilgrims on their way to worship at Mount Gassan.

Breakfast at the inn is both lavish and homey, showcasing a huge variety of wild shoots, roots, and greens, along with such proteins as onsen tamago (coddled egg) and grilled salmon belly.

Matriarch Satō Kikuko, who took over as the inn’s second-generation okami after marrying into the family 65 years ago, continues to help out, to the delight of guests old and new.

The Satō family, spanning four generations, is upholding and enriching the unique culinary culture of Yamagata’s Dewa Sanzan district.

Dewaya

Address: Mazawa 58, Nishikawa, Nishimurayama-gun, Yamagata Prefecture 990-0703
Phone: +81-(0)237-74-2323
Fax: +81-(0)237-74-3222
E-mail: info@dewaya.com
Website (in Japanese only): http://www.dewaya.com/

(Originally published in Japanese on July 25, 2018. Photos by Inomata Hiroshi. Series title written by Kanazawa Shōko.)

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