The Taste of Autumn in Japan
Autumn in Japan is a season of abundance.
As the intense heat of summer begins to fade, the landscape slowly changes. The rice fields turn golden, fruits become ripe, mushrooms appear in the forests, and the sea offers its own seasonal treasures.
In Japan, there is a word for eating what is at its best during a particular season: shun — the idea of enjoying ingredients when they are naturally at their most delicious.
And autumn is perhaps one of the richest seasons for shun.
From the forest
Mushrooms are one of the unmistakable tastes of Japanese autumn.
Matsutake is perhaps the most famous. Valued for its distinctive fragrance, it has long been associated with autumn and the forests of Japan. It can be grilled simply, cooked with rice, or used in dobin-mushi, a delicate soup in which its aroma is allowed to slowly unfold.
But matsutake is only one part of the autumn forest.
Shiitake, shimeji, maitake and nameko mushrooms also find their way into autumn meals — cooked with rice, added to soups, grilled, or simply enjoyed with a little soy sauce.
There is something wonderfully earthy about eating mushrooms in autumn.
It feels almost as though the forest itself has arrived at the table.
From the fields
Autumn is also harvest season.
Rice, the foundation of Japanese food culture, is harvested in autumn. The arrival of shinmai, or new rice, is something many people look forward to each year.
Freshly cooked new rice can be surprisingly simple: warm, soft, slightly sweet, and fragrant enough to enjoy on its own.
Then there are the autumn combinations — chestnut rice, mushroom rice, sweet potato rice.
A few ingredients, gathered from the season, transformed by heat and time.
Chestnuts and sweet potatoes
Chestnuts are another familiar sight of Japanese autumn.
They appear in rice dishes, sweets and traditional Japanese confections. Their warm brown colour seems to belong naturally to the season.
Sweet potatoes have their own autumn ritual.
Yakiimo — roasted sweet potatoes — are traditionally enjoyed warm, sometimes bought from small street vendors whose voices announce their arrival.
The outside may look simple and rough.
Inside, it is soft, golden and naturally sweet.
The colours of autumn fruit
Autumn also brings an extraordinary variety of fruit.
Persimmons, Japanese pears, grapes, apples and chestnuts fill markets with warm colours.
Persimmons, in particular, have a strong connection with the Japanese landscape of autumn. Fresh persimmons are beautifully simple, while hoshigaki — dried persimmons — are slowly transformed by time into something sweeter and deeper.
Perhaps this is one of the quiet pleasures of Japanese food culture:
not everything has to be eaten immediately.
Some things are allowed to wait.
From the sea
The sea has its own autumn calendar.
Sanma, or Pacific saury, is one of the fish most strongly associated with the season. Grilled whole and served simply, it is a familiar autumn meal in Japan.
There is also salmon, mackerel and returning bonito — each appearing at different moments of the seasonal cycle.
Just as the forest and fields change with the seasons, so does the sea.
A season to gather
What makes autumn in Japan special is not simply the number of delicious ingredients.
It is the feeling that the whole landscape is participating.
The mountains offer mushrooms.
The fields offer rice and vegetables.
The orchards offer fruit.
The sea offers fish.
And somehow, all of these things arrive at the table at just the right time.
Autumn is not only a season of changing colours.
It is a season of gathering, cooking, sharing and remembering.
A season when the taste of the land becomes part of everyday life.
Perhaps this is what shun really means.
To notice what the season is giving us — and to enjoy it while it is here.
**The forest, the fields, the sea and the garden.
Autumn arrives at the table.**