Protected local food
Sanbe Soba
三瓶そば
A native buckwheat grown at the foot of Mt Sanbe in Oda, Shimane, since the Edo period. Its small, firm grains give a deep, bold soba flavour.
Key facts
- Registered as a protected name
- 30 March 2020
- Region
- Chugoku
- Official name in Japanese
- 三瓶そば
- Official area (in Japanese)
- 島根県⼤⽥市三瓶町及び⼭⼝町
An old local buckwheat
Sanbe soba is a landrace, a buckwheat that local farmers have kept and resown for generations rather than a modern bred variety. Its grains are smaller and firmer than the main buckwheat varieties grown on Honshu, and a touch more bitterness gives the flour a deep, strong taste. It also binds well, which noodle makers love.
Volcanic highlands
The fields lie at about 500 metres in Sanbe-cho and Yamaguchi-cho in Oda city, Shimane, below Mt Sanbe, a 1,126-metre active volcano. Its ash made the black kuroboku soil, and the highland air swings from warm days to cold nights. Buckwheat has grown here since the Edo period.
Sought after
Because it is rare and tastes so distinct, millers and particular soba shops across Japan seek it out.
Good to know
- Mt Sanbe has grassy slopes, hiking trails and the Sanbe Buried Forest Museum, where trees buried by an eruption 4,000 years ago stand underground.
- Iwami Ginzan Silver Mine, a World Heritage Site, is also in Oda city. Pair the two in a day.
Questions travellers ask
Is soba gluten-free?
Pure buckwheat is, but most soba noodles also contain wheat flour. Ask for juwari soba, which is 100% buckwheat, and check with the shop.
When is new soba?
Shin-soba, the new harvest, arrives in autumn and is the most fragrant.
Where it comes from
More protected foods from the same area
Crafts from the same area
Heritage stories from the same area
- Esashi: the herring town that outshone Edo
- Fukiya: the birthplace of Japan Red
- Iwami kagura: gods and demons dance the old myths
- Iwami's volcanoes: Jomon forest and silver mountain in Oda
- Izumo: the sacred land where the sun sets
- Izumo's tatara: a thousand years of making iron
- Kitamaebune: the merchant ships that made Japan's port towns rich
- Masuda: a medieval masterpiece of Japan
- Tsuwano: walk into a book of 100 old paintings
Sources
We checked the facts on this page against these sources.