Flavor Purveyor

The Nihonbashi Club teams up with one of Japan’s oldest artisans of umami for a dashi-ful mixer.

In the heart of old Edo, just a stone’s throw from Tokyo American Club Nihonbashi, is a centuries-old purveyor of umami.

Ninben is one of Japan’s foremost sellers of katsuobushi—dried bonito or skipjack tuna flakes—a key ingredient in dashi soup stock and one of the reasons why Japanese food tastes so good.

Ninben’s Ihee Takatsu will lead Members in exploring dashi at this month’s Nihonbashi mixer, and INTOUCH caught up with the 13th-generation president for a glimpse into the maker’s delicious secrets.

“From a global perspective, katsuobushi is such a rare and unique ingredient,” Takatsu explains as we meet at Ninben’s shop in Coredo Muromachi. “Most cuisines extract umami by simmering meat or vegetables for a long time—like in a consommé or stock. It takes a lot of time and effort. But with katsuobushi, you can simply put it in hot water and, in just a minute or two, have a rich umami broth.”

As a food writer and an avid consumer of traditional Japanese washoku cuisine, it’s undoubtedly the best elevator pitch I’ve ever heard. But Takatsu continues.

“This is possible because the katsuobushi itself is already a highly condensed and concentrated ingredient, made through a long and careful process.”

That process is the source of much fascination, particularly as it involves fermentation, which has attracted global attention for its multitude of health benefits. Everything begins with katsuo, which are usually caught when they’re around half a meter in size. Ninben is extremely particular, sourcing from various locations to secure fish with just the right amount of oil. The katsuo are then filleted, simmered, deboned, and smoked 10 to 15 times over smoldering firewood. The fillets are sprayed with a kind of mold and left to rest. This ferments the fillets and helps draw out any residual moisture. They are then sun-dried and the mold is brushed off until they resemble more a piece of driftwood than former marine life. All in all, the final product is about 20 percent of its original weight.

Ninben, however, doesn’t stop there. They take this process a few steps further, repeating the molding and sun-drying more than four times to produce what’s considered the highest grade: hongare-katsuobushi.

Katsuobushi produced by Ninben.

“We’re the ones who found the mold that’s best for making katsuobushi, and now it’s used by manufacturers all over Japan,” Takatsu says. “We found it was perfect for breaking down the oil, producing katsuobushi that has a good aroma and is safe [for consumption]. We have long been striving to improve and stabilize the quality of katsuobushi.”

Ninben has indeed had centuries to perfect its craft. The company is said to have been officially founded in 1699 by the first Ihee Takatsu. Initially apprenticed to a grain trader, he found himself down on his luck and, at the tender age of 20, began trading katsuobushi and hoshiuo-rui (dried fish) from a street stall in present-day Nihonbashi-itchome. By 1704, he was so successful he founded a wholesale store.

The business continued to grow over the decades, embracing innovative practices such as a business policy of “cash only, no markup on the price.” This allowed customers to buy smaller amounts and pay the listed price, doing away with the then-common practice of haggling.

Ninben has been passed down from generation to generation, sometimes through marriage rather than direct bloodline, with the name Ihee Takatsu bestowed upon whoever holds the title of president. The company has survived hard economic times and multiple fires. It was among a select group of purveyors to the Tokugawa shogunate, and later became a supplier of katsuobushi during the Russo-Japanese War. These episodes speak to a rich and checkered history of an Edo-era entity where traditions die hard.

“Growing up, it was just something normal for me,” Takatsu says. “But when I looked around, I realized no one else had such fixed traditions. For example, our family eats very specific dishes on New Year’s Day. This has continued for nearly 300 years. When talking to others, I realized our family is a little bit different.”

Strict traditions aside, the company’s ability to innovate is what has kept it relevant and in the hearts—and stomachs—of many across Japan. In the mid-1960s, they launched Tsuyu no Moto, a soup base that acts as premade dashi stock that just needs to be diluted and used for soup broths, stews, and simmered fish.

Then, there’s the Ninben Nihonbashi main store and the Nihonbashi Dashi Bar in Nihonbashi’s Coredo Muromachi 1, a modern space decked with traditional Japanese sensibilities. Part shop, part café, customers can watch staff freshly shave katsuobushi that can be bought then and there. There’s even a space for umami-packed dashi tasting and katsuobushi rice bowls and lunch sets.

While Takatsu says the aim of the bar is to reconnect modern-day consumers with this fundamental Japanese ingredient, katsuobushi’s global appeal is growing, and it’s now used in innovative and Michelin-starred kitchens across the world. “World-famous restaurants like El Bulli in Spain and Noma in Denmark—they all experiment with dashi or make their own umami-rich ingredients,” Takatsu notes.

Club Members will get the chance to sample tapas and even drinks made with Ninben’s high-grade katsuobushi—including the Muromachi Bloody Mary and Umami Fizz mocktail—at the September Nihonbashi Mixer.

As Takatsu points out, you can expect all the flavor and none of the guilt. “It’s easy to use, and the fact that it’s low in calories and low in fat makes it even better.”