Guarding The Rice Crops
With the ripening of rice plants in autumn, a striking flower appears across Japan at the exact same time: the red spider lily.
In Japanese it’s called Higanbana, the flower of higan, the shore on the other side of the river that separates the world of the living and the dead.
The autumnal equinox day is when the sun sets exactly in the west, the direction where the Japanese believe the Pure Land, or paradise, to be. So this is when families traditionally visit ancestral graves.
Blooming around this time, the flower got its name. Even in English it is sometimes translated as Equinox Flower.
You can often see these flowers blooming around the perimeters of rice paddies or on narrow footpaths between them.
In the old days people planted them there on purpose. Because the plant is poisonous, it keeps mice, moles, and insects away from the precious rice crops.
To my astonishment, I heard my mother-in-law mention that she ate the bulb during wartime, when other food was scarce.
The main toxin, licorine, is water soluble, so the bulb was crushed and rinsed repeatedly in water, until the poison was washed out.
Afterwards, the mixture was left to settle so the starch would sink to the bottom and could finally be collected.
It was then formed into dumplings or mixed with other grains and cooked. This would provide food in times of famine or war.
Shiny And Beautiful, Yet Poisonous: The Horse Chestnut
Japan has other toxic or bitter plants that are not commonly eaten in Europe; yet here they are transformed into food through lengthy and labor-intensive methods.
Take the horse chestnut (tochi), for example.
As its bitter and toxic saponins are not water soluble, it takes a complex process to remove them which lasts about a month.
First the seeds are soaked in water to kill insects, then peeled with a special tool.
After immersing the shelled seeds in running water (e.g. a river) for 7 to 10 days to wash out acids and toxins, workers boil them in water mixed with tree ash for up to a week.
Only after this lengthy process can they be steamed and pounded together with glutinous rice to make chestnut mochi cakes or chestnut rice crackers.
Japanese mochi
The term mochi is usually used for rice cakes made of glutinous rice. After steaming the rice it is pounded into paste and formed into the desired shape, usually round or rectangular.
A Hard-Earned Root
Even non-poisonous roots require great skill, time and labor to extract and process. The kudzu root is one example.
Its starch has been used in Japan since ancient times. It works well in cooking, just like potato or corn starch, but as it warms the body and regulates digestion, it has been used as a traditional remedy against colds. Dissolved in hot water with ground ginger and a touch of honey, people drink it to ward off colds. It is also crafted into sweets.
Finding the right kudzu plant takes an expert eye. It has to be a plant with a thick, woody trunk – not exactly what we associate with a climbing vine. People look for it in winter when more starch is stored in the root.
Even when finding a promising plant, there’s no guarantee the root will be thick or starch-rich enough to justify the digging.
If you’re lucky enough to get a nice, fat root, the work to extract the starch must start immediately, otherwise the starch will degrade.
First it is scrubbed clean with a brush, then pounded with a wooden mallet to break up the fibers.
Then the pieces are broken down further by hand.
The pieces are immersed in a bucket of water and kneaded to release the starch.
The liquid is strained through a cloth bag and the cloth wrung to squeeze out the last drop of liquid.
The liquid is left to sit so that the heavy starch settles at the bottom and the dirty water on top is poured off and replaced repeatedly until it stays clear.
Finally the starch is collected and left to dry for long-term storage.
Of course this process is done mechanically for commercial purposes today.
There are many more examples of such work-intensive foods in Japan. The hardship and physical labor the Japanese were and are willing to invest remain astonishing – and offer a window into how hard it must have been to get by in earlier eras.