November 2024, Shimotsuki Katame (In-depth)

　Hello, this is Mizobe from Whole Love Kyoto! Welcome to the second edition of Yomoyama Stories! This issue, titled Yawame (Gentle), is curated by our boss, Sakai, while I, Mizobe, am in charge of Katame (In-depth).　Finally, the heat has eased, and the sweet scent of fragrant olive fills the air around Kyoto. I love how the city’s aroma changes with the seasons. As I walk from our store to Kawaramachi, I keep discovering new fragrant olive trees and mentally pin them on my map.

The Essence of Miso

　One day in September, our boss casually announced, “Next week, we’re going on a company trip to Kanazawa.” Before I could even process the surprise, there we were—in Kanazawa.

　The highlight of the trip was a “Miso Workshop” held at the 21st Century Museum of Contemporary Art. The room was filled with the rich aroma of soybeans as middle school participants crushed beans with intense focus, paying little attention to the discussions about bacteria, fermentation, and miso-making.　Using fresh rice koji from Kato Miso, a Kyoto-based miso producer, we crafted our miso. After a sweaty session, the miso was placed into barrels, where it will ferment for about a year. The workshop encouraged us to design the barrel as if it were a package—a creative touch that felt like the essence (miso) of the experience. The idea of waiting a whole year for the miso to be ready felt like creating a time capsule.

　At Whole Love Kyoto, we’ve hosted a range of “Kyoto Artisan Online Workshops” via Zoom, connecting participants with skilled artisans. Past workshops have featured experiences like fuki-urushi (lacquer polishing), mizuhiki (decorative cords), and kiri-bako (decorative wooden boxes).On Saturday, March 1st, 2025, we’re hosting a new workshop, “Kyoto’s Miso-Making at Home with Fresh Rice Koji,” featuring the 4th-generation master of Kato Miso, Masatsugu Kato. Participants will learn the traditional art of fermentation and miso-making.　Details will be available on the Geijutsu Gakusha (Art Academy) website starting December 6th, and registration opens on the same day. The deadline to apply is 1:00 PM on February 4th, 2025, but we recommend applying early. For example, our autumn course on “Hand-Painted Yuzen” reached its cap of 50 participants well before the deadline!