Founded over 100 years ago in the town of Ashiya in Hyogo Prefecture, Rokko Miso crafts miso using traditional methods, selects the highest quality locally-grown ingredients, and pays especially strict attention to the koji-making process.
Turning off a busy road, you enter their small, unassuming production facility and are greeted with the pleasantly funky scent of fermenting miso. After first passing through the modest ground floor office, you enter Rokko Miso's two story factory. Upstairs is where the miso is actually made. The first step is to make the rice koji by steaming rice and then inoculating the grains with koji spores. The inoculated rice is then left to ferment for two days in humid 39-40 degrees C temperatures in two stainless steel koji rooms. The rice koji is then mixed with cooked soybeans and salt and then dropped through one of the many trap doors in the floor.
Cooking soybeans / One of the two koji rooms / Rice koji
Beneath each trap door is a tank where the miso will then have a chance to age. As per tradition, Rokko Miso uses river stones to weight down the miso as it ages in barrels. The aging process length is determined by the season (fermentation is faster when it is warmer) and the type of miso (white miso needs just a month or so of aging, red much longer). No matter which style of miso you choose from Rokko Miso, you know you have a great everyday miso that will add fermented flavors to your dishes.
Trap door with miso aging below / Aging tanks / River stones to weigh down miso
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