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Vegetables from Shizuoka

Wasabi-zuke (wasabi in sake lees)山葵漬け

Wasabi-zuke is wasabi stem and root chopped fine, salted overnight, squeezed and kneaded into sake lees with sugar. Sealed for 2 to 3 days, it turns sharply pungent. The sharpness comes from the wasabi itself as it is kneaded, and the lees bring their own flavour.

Fully documentedVegetables2.3 days – 3.3 days

Recipe

Amounts from a sourceMAFF regional-cuisine recipe for 2 servings; the page notes that recipes vary by area and household.
Wasabi stems and roots450 gChopped about 3 mm fine[maff-kyodo]
Sake lees (sake kasu)250 g[maff-kyodo]
SugarTo taste[maff-kyodo]
SakeTo taste[maff-kyodo]
SaltA little, plus 2 % of the wasabi weight for the overnight salting[maff-kyodo]

Total time across the recorded steps: 2.3 days – 3.3 days

Start
Drag the bar or press Play
Close-up: salt moving into a leafSalt 2 %

What changes: Finely chopped wasabi is rubbed with salt and left overnight

Step 1 of 4
Chop the wasabi and salt it overnight
Time
at least 6 h
Reported
Temperature
Not documented
Salt
2 %
Reported
Acidity
Not documented
Flavour
Not documented
Texture
Not documented
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

Wasabi-zuke is wasabi stem and root chopped fine, salted overnight, squeezed and kneaded into sake lees with sugar. Sealed for 2 to 3 days, it turns sharply pungent. The sharpness comes from the wasabi itself as it is kneaded, and the lees bring their own flavour. Made in 4 steps over 2.3 days – 3.3 days. The longest step, seal and rest until pungent, takes 2–3 days (MAFF うちの郷土料理 (Our regional cuisines) 2026). Salt is 2 % (MAFF うちの郷土料理 (Our regional cuisines) 2026).

Key numbers
Main step2–3 daysReported[maff-kyodo][maff-dentoshoku]Seal and rest until pungent
Salt2 %Reported[maff-kyodo]Chop the wasabi and salt it overnight

What makes this one different

Unlike narazuke, which ages in lees for a long time, wasabi-zuke is ready in 2 to 3 days. Its sharp taste comes from the wasabi itself as it is kneaded, and the lees bring their own flavour.

Related ferments

Safety

Japan's pickle hygiene code (MHLW, last revised 2013) defines quick pickles (asazuke) as fresh vegetables kept a short time in a seasoning liquid or a sake-lees or bran bed, with no heating or fermenting step to sterilise them, and asks that raw materials, half-finished pickles and the product be kept at 10 °C or below.

History and sources

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

Wasabi was first planted by springs in Utogi (Shizuoka) in the Keichō era (1596–1615). A Sunpu wasabi merchant, Tajiriya Risuke, improved a local pickle into the lees version in the mid-Edo period, and sales at Shizuoka station, opened in 1889, made it a national souvenir (MAFF).

Starter
The sources we found do not say how its fermentation begins.
  1. [maff-kyodo] MAFF うちの郷土料理 (Our regional cuisines), 山葵漬け (Shizuoka), read 2026-10-23gov
  2. [maff-dentoshoku] MAFF にっぽん伝統食図鑑 (Japan traditional foods), わさび漬け, read 2026-10-23gov
  3. [yoshioka2025] Yoshioka M., Akasaka N., Masuda Y., Mori M. and Watanabe D. 2025, Ethanolphilic lactic acid bacterium Fructilactobacillus fructivorans as the key microorganism for fermentation of narazuke, a traditional Japanese preserved food, Applied and Environmental Microbiology 91(12), e01730-25paper
  4. [mhlw-pickle-code] MHLW (Japan Ministry of Health, Labour and Welfare), 漬物の衛生規範の改正等について (notice 食安監発1213第2号, 13 Dec 2013) with the revised 漬物の衛生規範 (Hygiene Code for Pickles)gov