To commemorate the kickoff of the KOJI THE KITCHEN project, and to meet fellow people who share the same views as KOJI THE KITCHEN, we will be holding "KOJI THE KITCHEN vol.0 [KOJI MEETUP in Nagoya]" on October 10th (Sun) and November 3rd (Holiday) !
Cooperation: FabCafe Nagoya, where food and art intersect
KOJI THE KITCHEN vol.0 is an exploratory project in which food creators and Kojiya Sanzaemon join forces to freely express food techniques and ideas using koji starter.
Starting with a meetup event on Sunday, October 10th, where we will welcome guests and food creators who work in the field where fermented foods and creativity intersect, we will spend the month exploring never-before-seen "unknown deliciousness" that approaches food and koji starter from unexpected angles through menu prototyping and a presentation on November 3rd (national holiday).
KOJI THE KITCHEN vol.0 is based at FabCafe Nagoya and will share the process of exploring new aspects of food and dining experiences that are born from combining the creativity of food creators in the Tokai region and our belief in the unknown deliciousness that comes from the work of koji starter.
We will welcome guests who are active across the fields of food culture, including fermentation, design, and art, and hold a deep and maniacal discussion about the practice and future possibilities of cultivating culture through koji making and fermentation techniques. Furthermore, together with food creators who are actually attempting to develop menus using koji starter, we will explore the possibilities of this challenge in areas of food that koji starter has yet to reach.
10/10(Sun)
KOJI THE KITCHEN vol.0 [KOJI MEETUP in Nagoya]
Participation fee: Free Venue: Zoom (Webinar)
This is an online event, so anyone can feel free to join.
Speakers
Yuichiro Murai, 29th Head of Kojiya Sanzaemon After graduating from Keio University, he went to the United States and obtained an MBA in Global Management. After gaining on-site experience in the family business, he became head of the family in 2016. Aiming to create a new fermentation culture, he is working on a new business to expand the market for seed koji. While giving lectures to promote koji both domestically and internationally as the manager of a seed koji manufacturer, he entered the Kyoto University of Arts Graduate School in April 2020 and began researching tradition and design thinking.
Ken Sekiya, CEO of Sekiya Brewery Co., Ltd. After graduating from the Department of Brewing, Faculty of Agriculture, Tokyo University of Agriculture, he gained experience in related industries and became CEO of Sekiya Brewery Co., Ltd. in 2010. He currently leads the industry while concurrently serving as Chairman of the Aichi Prefecture Sake Brewers Association, Organizing Committee Member of the Japan Sake and Shochu Makers Association, and Director of the Japan Ginjo Sake Association. In 2020, he opened restaurant Koji MARUTANI , which is equipped with a koji room, expanding the possibilities of sake.
Fermentation Designer Ogura Hiraku<br>He studied fermentation science as a research student at Tokyo University of Agriculture and established a fermentation lab in Koshu, Yamanashi Prefecture. Aiming to "make the invisible workings of bacteria visible through design," he has developed projects themed around fermentation and microorganisms with brewers and researchers from around the country and runs the Fermentation Department . He won the Good Design Award in 2014 for his animation "Temai Miso no Uta." His books include "Fermentation Cultural Anthropology" (published by Kirakusha in 2017).
Bassist / Music Producer / Creative Director / Vice Representative Director of NPO SOMA / Atelierist Hamada Orito<br>While working as a musician in Japan, Europe, and the US, he also provides a wide range of brand creation and marketing support to listed companies and local communities as a creative director. In 2020, he was appointed Vice Representative Director/CSO of the educational NPO SOMA, where he works as an Atelierist, an expert in arts education. In his private life, he is a tea ceremony practitioner of the Urasenke school and heads Hatsune-an. He currently writes a series called "Ichigo Ichishoku" in the food culture magazine RiCE.press.
KOJI THE KITCHEN vol.0
[KOJI MEETUP in Nagoya]
The KOJI THE KITCHEN project is an exploratory project to create a new food culture centered around koji starter.
For over 600 years since our founding in the Muromachi period, Kojiya Sanzaemon has been providing brewing manufacturers across the country with starter koji, the raw material for koji, the foundation of Japan's fermentation culture, and continuing to work with koji.
The traditional culture of "koji," which utilizes the properties of the various types of koji fungus that live in Japan, has seen a definite boom in recent years.
With the development of fermentation communities based on people who make their own rice koji, the appearance of shops and cafes selling fermented foods, and the rise of the amazake boom as a "drinkable IV drip," koji is becoming a movement that is going beyond being just a raw material for making products such as soy sauce, miso, and sake.
And in world-famous restaurants such as Noma , koji-making and fermentation have become new culinary techniques, elevated to a gourmet identity, and various ways to utilize koji starter are being discovered one after another, expanding its possibilities in every direction.
Through the KOJI THE KITCHEN project, Kojiya Sanzaemon will collaborate with various ideas in the four fields of koji-related art, science, design, and engineering to explore and unveil previously unknown deliciousness created with koji starter.
Kojiya Sanzaemon will continue to explore and create a new food culture using koji together with all of our colleagues who share an interest in the possibilities of fermentation and koji, and will build a future base for fermentation culture starting from the Higashi Mikawa region.