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A report published Oct. 20 describes how Kanesa Katsuobushi Shoten, a workshop in Nishi-Izu founded in 1882, makes katsuobushi using a traditional hand-fired smoking method. The process includes boiling and repeatedly smoking bonito, fermenting it with koji mold and sun-drying it for more than six months; the workshop says only a few makers in Japan still use the method.
A report published Oct. 20 describes how Kanesa Katsuobushi Shoten, a bonito-processing workshop in Nishi-Izu, Japan, makes katsuobushi through boiling, repeated wood-fire smoking, mold fermentation and months of drying. The workshop, founded in 1882, still uses a hand-fired method that its website says is practiced by only a few bonito makers in Japan.
The account follows the fish from fresh bonito to a hard, dried block used to make katsuobushi, or dried bonito. The fish is filleted and boiled for about 90 minutes, then smoked and dried more than 10 times over a fire tended by hand. The report attributes the work to Yasuhisa Serizawa, described as the workshop’s fifth-generation craftsman.
After smoking, the fish is repaired with a paste made from bonito, then treated with koji mold and left to dry in the sun. The report says the overall process can take more than half a year. The finished fish becomes very hard, with the source describing its texture as wood-like and its surface as jewel-like.
The workshop calls its approach the Tebiyama-shiki smoking method. In a description translated by Google and quoted in the report, Kanesa says the method uses a roughly two-meter-deep vertical pit, where firewood from the Izu region is burned below the fish. Woods named by the workshop include oak, sawtooth oak and cherry. The account says the process uses the high heat of an open flame to smoke and dry the bonito.
A Time-Intensive Craft in Nishi-Izu
The report shows how traditional food production can depend on skilled labor and extended processing rather than a single preservation step. Filleting, boiling, repeated smoking, repairs, mold treatment and sun-drying take months, and the smoking itself requires a worker to tend the fire. That makes the method a distinct form of craft production, not simply a recipe that can be completed in a day.
For readers, the process helps explain why katsuobushi is sold as a dried block that can be shaved into flakes, rather than as ready-to-eat fresh fish. The workshop says its high-temperature open-flame smoking helps produce a rich flavor by locking in umami. That is the maker’s explanation of the method’s result; the report does not provide independent testing or a comparison with other production techniques.
The account also points to the limited number of makers maintaining this approach. If the workshop’s description is accurate, the practice is unusual within Japan’s bonito industry. Its continuation rests on people who know how to manage the fire and carry out each stage over an extended period.
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A Method With Edo-Period Roots
Kanesa’s website says the Tebiyama method has been used in the Tago district of West Izu for a long time and is believed to date back about 300 years, to the Edo period. The report describes the workshop itself as founded in 1882 and says Serizawa continues to use a technique it characterizes as roughly 200 years old. These are related but distinct timelines: the method’s estimated local history and the workshop’s founding date.
According to the workshop’s account, the name refers to smoking in a deep pit over a wood fire. It describes the approach as the oldest existing smoking method and says only a few bonito manufacturers in Japan still use it. Those historical and rarity descriptions come from the workshop’s translated explanation, rather than an independently supplied industry survey in the report.
“The history of this method is said to date back about 300 years, to the Edo period.”
— Kanesa Katsuobushi Shoten, in a website description translated by Google
What the Account Does Not Establish
The report and translated website description do not give a precise number of surviving practitioners, nor do they independently verify the method’s claimed age or status as the oldest existing smoking technique. The description that only a few producers use it is attributed to the workshop, and no industry-wide survey is included.
Some production details also remain unspecified. The account does not state the temperature of the fire, the exact length of each smoking round, the number of mold-treatment cycles, or how the fish is stored during the process. It gives a total drying period of more than six months but does not set out a fixed schedule for every batch. The report also does not provide an independent comparison of flavor or quality between Tebiyama-made bonito and fish produced by other methods.
The Craft Continues at Kanesa
The report presents the method as an ongoing practice at Kanesa Katsuobushi Shoten, rather than announcing a change in production or a new product. Readers seeking more information are directed to the workshop’s website, which describes its Tebiyama process. The source material does not identify a scheduled demonstration, production milestone or forthcoming announcement.
The next concrete development is continued production: each batch must pass through the workshop’s extended sequence of preparation, smoking, mold treatment and drying. Whether the workshop will publish further information about its methods or the number of producers using them is not stated.
Key Questions
What is katsuobushi?
Katsuobushi is Japanese dried bonito. The report describes it as a fish product processed into a hard block that can be shaved into flakes.
How does Kanesa make its dried bonito?
The reported process starts with filleting and boiling bonito for about 90 minutes. The fish is then smoked and dried more than 10 times, repaired with bonito paste, treated with koji mold and sun-dried.
How long does the process take?
The report says the full process takes more than half a year. It does not give a fixed timetable for each stage or every batch.
What is the Tebiyama smoking method?
It is Kanesa’s name for a hand-fired method described as using a roughly two-meter-deep pit and regional firewood. The workshop says the fish is smoked and dried with heat from an open flame.
How many Japanese producers still use this method?
The workshop says only a few bonito makers in Japan continue to use it. The report does not provide an exact number or an independent count.
Source: kottke.org
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