Empress Jingu at the table

At the Yamato court, meals were not divided into starter-main-dessert: they were organized around shinsen, the sacred foods presented to the kami (rice, fish, salt, water, rice wine), followed by naorai, the moment when dignitaries and priestesses shared these same foods once blessed. Eating was communing with the deities. Steamed rice was the heart; everything else—fish, salted vegetables, fermented drink—revolved around it in order of purity.

Rice (kome) was the king of foods in Yamato: sustenance, symbolic currency, and offering to the kami. Its transformation by koji (noble mold, Aspergillus oryzae) unlocked the entire flavor universe of the archipelago—from the sweetness of amazake to the deep saltiness of brines. It is the signature technique that connects all these recipes.