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Vegetables from Ashikita and Minamata, Kumamoto, Japan

Kanzuke (twice cold-wind-dried daikon)寒漬け

Kanzuke is daikon dried twice in the cold winter wind, with a salting in between. The whole daikon hangs until it bends, is salted under a stone for about 20 days, then hangs again for one to two months until amber. The dried daikon is then soaked, sliced and steeped for a few days in soy sauce, sugar, mirin and vinegar.

Fully documentedVegetables2 months – 3.2 months

Recipe

Amounts from a sourceThe MAFF recipe for 1 kg of kanboshi daikon, from Kumamoto Prefecture's book of home-town recipes. Families add ginger, kombu or yuzu-koshō as they like.
Kanboshi daikon (salted, twice-dried daikon)1 kgMade from whole daikon salted at 5–6 % of their weight[maff-kanzuke]
Sugar400 g[maff-kanzuke]
Soy sauce3 cups[maff-kanzuke]
Mirin1 cup[maff-kanzuke]
Dashi kombu20 gBoiled in the seasoning, then chopped and added back[maff-kanzuke]
Vinegar1 cupAdded last, after boiling[maff-kanzuke]
SesameA little[maff-kanzuke]

Total time across the recorded steps: 2 months – 3.2 months

Start
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What changes: Whole daikon hang from bamboo poles in the cold wind until they wrinkle and bend

Step 1 of 5
Hang whole daikon in the cold wind until it bends
Time
10–14 days
Reported
Temperature
Not documented
Salt
None given
Acidity
Not documented

Output: hoshi daikon (dried daikon).

Flavour
Not documented
Texture
limp and wrinkled
Colour
Not documented

Microbes at work in this step

Not documented for this step.

Method

Measured measured in a studySet fixed by a specification or tested recipeReported one source reports itTypical a general value, not sourced for this fermentUnconfirmed not yet checked against a source

At a glance

Kanzuke is daikon dried twice in the cold winter wind, with a salting in between. The whole daikon hangs until it bends, is salted under a stone for about 20 days, then hangs again for one to two months until amber. The dried daikon is then soaked, sliced and steeped for a few days in soy sauce, sugar, mirin and vinegar. Made in 5 steps over 2 months – 3.2 months. The longest step, hang again until amber, takes 30 days – 2 months (Ministry of Agriculture 2026). Salt is 5–6 % (Ministry of Agriculture 2026).

Key numbers
Main step30 days – 2 monthsReported[maff-kanzuke][maff-kanzuke-tf]Hang again until amber
Salt5–6 %Reported[maff-kanzuke]Salt in a tub under a stone

What makes this one different

Kanzuke dries the daikon twice in the cold wind, before and after a salting, and is only then marinated in soy sauce. Most dried-daikon pickles, such as takuan, are dried once and then pickled in bran or salt.

Related ferments

Variants

  • School and home versionsGinger, kombu or yuzu-koshō are added to the marinade; a local junior high school dries its daikon in January and marinates it in February.

Safety

The salted, twice-dried daikon keeps well; once marinated, MAFF suggests freezing to keep its flavour and colour.

History and sources

Every number is labelled with how it is known. How this atlas is made

Daikon hanging from the eaves were a winter sight of Ashikita and Minamata from late November to about March. Bamboo, plentiful in the area, gives the skewers. Fewer people dry daikon at home now, and dried daikon is sold for families to marinate themselves.

Starter
The sources we found do not say how its fermentation begins.
  1. [maff-kanzuke] Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries (MAFF), Uchi no kyōdo ryōri (Our regional cuisines), 寒漬け (Kumamoto); recipe from Kumamoto Prefecture, Kumamoto no furusato no shoku reshipi-shū, vol. 2, read 2026-10gov
  2. [maff-kanzuke-tf] MAFF, Nippon dentōshoku zukan (Japanese traditional foods guide), 寒漬け, read 2026-10gov
  3. [tamakawa2017] Tamakawa H., 2017, Isolations of lactic acid bacteria from pickled daikon (Japanese white radish) and effect as inoculation of starter cultures on the fermentation, Iwate Industrial Technology Center Research Report 20gov