The reason for his bold change from a sake izakaya.
It was a few years ago that we heard that Mr. and Mrs. Itogawa, owners of Ajisake Kamunabi, a store widely known among sake lovers, had started a natto workshop. The new development of a popular Michelin-starred restaurant is Natto in Osaka! I was surprised to learn that Ajizake Kamunabi had closed indefinitely to focus on natto.
“Natto itself was something we had been making and serving at our restaurant for about 25 years before we started Kamunavi. So, we have been doing this for a long time, but it was Corona that inspired us to set up the workshop. Even though customers wanted us to sell natto, we needed a manufacturing license to do so. I got excited when take-out sales became popular at Corona, so I set up a workshop and obtained a manufacturing license,” said Mr. Itogawa.
“We had always had an interest in fermented foods. So when we opened Kamunavi, he was going to name the store “Ohodoreya. But at the time, there was still no fermentation boom, so we all tried very hard to stop him (laughs)” said Mrs. Itogawa.
When [Ajizake Kamunabi] opened in 2008, not only fermentation but even sake was not as popular as it is today. According to Mr. Itogawa, it was commonplace to see shochu (Japanese liquor) instead of sake at izakaya (Japanese-style pubs) back then. In such a situation, naming a restaurant “Ofureya” was indeed too early.
In the first year after setting up the workshop, they specialized in production and sold their products under the name “Ajizake Kamunabi. In the second year, the workshop space was expanded to also serve as a direct sales outlet. In the fourth year, they decided to concentrate on the natto workshop. Why did they do that?
“I didn’t intend to do that at all at first. But after making natto on Tuesdays, Wednesdays, and Thursdays, and doing food and beverage on Fridays, Saturdays, and Sundays, we were running out of energy. As we got older, we thought that in the long run, it would be better to work during the day. As for the promotion of sake, I feel that we have done what we can do and have already fulfilled our role. However, I felt that natto still had a lot of potential to be explored further,” said Mr. Itogawa.
Mr. Itogawa realized the potential of natto when he started selling natto. Natto is made by fermenting boiled soybeans with natto bacillus. After World War II, mass production and streamlining by manufacturers progressed, and the number of small-scale natto producers continued to decline.
“We brew natto using only the natto bacillus living in the rice straw, which was a common practice in households in the olden days, but on a slightly larger scale. But in fact, most municipalities do not allow the sale of fermented products made from rice straw. That is why there are probably no more than 10 natto manufacturers in Japan that make natto from rice straw. But in Osaka, it is allowed. Of course, this was the result of our application after submitting various documents, including the procurement and management of straw. Perhaps it was fortunate that we were a natto backward prefecture,” said Mr. Itogawa.
Under the current Food Sanitation Law, natto manufacturers are required to obtain a permit to operate in each prefecture. Equipment standards and hygiene guidance for the production process are quite strict. Under such circumstances, they went through with the old-fashioned method of fermentation with rice straw. Straw-bale natto, which is placed in rice straw and tied at both ends, is still distributed today, but it is mostly a souvenir product with a small amount of content. Mr. and Mrs. Itokawa want people to eat natto as an everyday food, so they sell it in 500g units, which is 8 to 10 times larger than a regular pack, to make their small production and retail store in the town possible.
“In the Edo period (1603-1867), there was a business called “natto shop or natto vendor in the town. This is the only way to do it now. Straw-braised natto requires a lot of time and money, so it couldn’t be sold for the price of everyday food,” said Mr. Itogawa.
“It is a product that requires a lot of explanation, so it is necessary to talk about it face-to-face while selling it, and that is what makes it so interesting. I have taught many people, including people from overseas who came to me for advice on how to make miso and koji themselves. It’s not so different from making miso or koji at home, so it’s easier than you might think,” said Mrs. Itogawa.
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"Tanimachi Natto" comes in 500g packages for 1,200 yen. The natto is fermented with natural natto bacillus over a long period of time, so the soybeans have a strong flavor. -
Temperature and humidity control is essential for proper fermentation. When the workshop was first established, the conditions were checked every six hours, day and night. -
"People say, 'Natto made in Osaka?', but I feel that the Natto market is much larger than the sake market,” he said. -
"Long-ripened natto," fermented for 1.5 times longer than "Tanimachi natto," is also available. It has a lot of delicious flavor that is the result of the natto bacteria's great activity.
Just like a bakery or tofu shop, it is a Natto shop in town. Although Rakuradasaka Natto Kobo is located on a back street in Tanimachi 4-chome, there was no end to the number of customers who seemed to be regular visitors to the shop while we spoke with them.
“We consider this to be our main street. The name “Camel Slope” is also a name I gave to the street on my own. It’s a self-made play, though (laughs),” said Mr. Itogawa.
In a neighborhood where historical streets and town names such as Junjiken-cho, Ryuzoji-cho, and Kumano Kaido remain, Itogawa named the north-south street that runs in front of his store “Camel Slope” after a series of slopes that look like camel’s humps.
Mr. Itogawa said, “People who want to run a store on the main street and people who want to run a store in a back street have different characters, and recently the number of stores on the back street has been increasing, so I feel that unique people are gathering here.”
Naniwanomiya & I
A place where the free atmosphere and space that is unique to this place is preserved.
“Speaking of Nambamiya, I started playing frisbee with a group of friends who work at restaurants during the COVID-19 pandemic. We get together every Sunday and continue to this day. Frisbee is an unusual sport in that there is no human contact, and even in tournaments, teams are made up of mixed sexes. It was just right for us, and at one time there were about 20 of us playing together. Now there are fewer and fewer, and some days there are only four or five of us,” said Mr. Itogawa.
“I once had a wedding ceremony at Naniwanomiya Palace for a close friend and his wife who run a store in the Kusabori shopping district. It was a beautiful, sunny day. It was a beautiful, sunny day, and the bride was wearing her wedding dress…After we made a few plausible speeches, we opened a bottle of sake and poured it all over the groom (laughs). Naniwanomiya is an important place open to everyone,” Mrs. Itogawa.
Rakudazaka Natto Kobo
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Address4-8-29 Tanimachi, Chuo-ku, Osaka
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TEL070-9029-1710
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