Q.Why is Miwa the birthplace of Japanese somen noodles?

Born at Omiwa Shrine, in Miwa over 1,200 years ago

According to MAFF's "Traditional Foods of Japan" guide, somen began more than 1,200 years ago when the son of the chief priest of Omiwa Shrine in Miwa (Sakurai City, Nara) sowed wheat in this land well suited to its cultivation and made noodles from the harvest. Nara's official tourism site holds that the creator of somen was Taneushi, the second son of Omiwa-no-ason Saikusa — a descendant of Otataneko, the shrine's first chief priest — placing its birth about 1,200 years ago. A separate account on the Geographical Indication site dates it to the Nara period, about 1,300 years ago. Either way, Miwa is regarded as the birthplace of hand-stretched somen.

Hand-stretching with repeated "umashi" resting

A hallmark of Miwa somen is the repeated maturing step called "umashi." It lets the right amount of moisture escape, giving noodles a smooth throat-feel that resist going soft when boiled. Production is limited to the cold, dry months from December to the end of March, and each product takes two days to make (MAFF). The noodles' firmness is reflected in the quality standard: under GI Registration No.12, Miwa Somen must contain 9.5% or more protein, against roughly 9.3% for ordinary hand-stretched somen (2016 GI standard).

Pilgrims to Ise carried it to Banshu, Shodoshima, and Shimabara

Miwa thrived as a post town in the Edo period. People who passed through Miwa on pilgrimage to Ise are said to have carried the hand-stretching method onward, spreading it to Banshu (Hyogo), Shodoshima, and Shimabara (MAFF). That Miwa was already a famed producer survives in the literature: the 1754 work "Nihon Sankai Meibutsu Zue" describes Yamato Miwa somen as a celebrated product, fine as thread and white as snow — showing Miwa was known as a somen center in the Edo period.

GI Registration No.12, and the Bokujosai rite

"Miwa Somen" was registered as the 12th product under Japan's Geographical Indication (GI) system on March 29, 2016. The production area is Nara Prefecture, and the registered producer bodies are the Nara Miwa Somen Manufacturers' Cooperative and the Nara Miwa Somen Sales Council. The GI standard even defines noodle fineness: per 10 g, 65–75 strands for standard grade, 75–95 for premium, and 95 or more for top grade. A rite unique to the birthplace also continues: every February 5, Omiwa Shrine holds the Bokujosai, where somen makers gather and a priest divines that year's somen price before the deity. The result still informs the season's first trading, and a "somen dance" is dedicated in the precincts.

Datasets behind this article

• Traditional Foods of Japan: Miwa Sōmen (MAFF)農林水産省
• Nara's Nationally Designated Traditional Crafts奈良県
• Nara Prefecture Tourist Dynamics Survey Report奈良県