Kelp Road

Hello.

It was cold last weekend!

At times like these, you want to eat something warm. Hotpot and oden come to mind. That's where kelp is a must! There are many different types and origins of kelp, and I'm sure there are households that use different types for different purposes. It would take a long time to explain, so I'll introduce it in several parts.

This is the first installment!

More than 95% of the kelp harvested in Japan is harvested throughout Hokkaido, with the rest harvested along the Sanriku Coast in Tohoku (Aomori, Iwate, and Miyagi prefectures), and the types of kelp harvested vary depending on the location.

It was from the mid-Kamakura period onwards that kelp produced in Hokkaido began to spread nationwide. Kelp trading ships began to travel frequently between Matsumae, Hokkaido and Honshu. It was around this time that kelp began to be eaten by the common people. During the Edo period, when maritime traffic flourished, Kitamae ships were used to transport kelp directly from Shimonoseki to Osaka, the "Kitchen of the World," via the Nishikigoi route through the Seto Inland Sea, and the commercial center of Osaka . The collective name for the route that transported kelp was the "Kombu Road. " The Konbu Road stretched to Edo, Kyushu, the Ryukyu Kingdom (Okinawa Prefecture), and the Qing Dynasty (China).
In particular, the Ryukyu Kingdom played an important role as a transit point for the kelp trade between the Satsuma Domain (Kagoshima Prefecture) and Qing China. First of all, Hokkaido accounts for 90% of the kelp produced in Japan. Even within Hokkaido, the types and sizes of kelp vary depending on the area where it is harvested.

That's all for today. We'll bring you more information on kelp next time.