Protected local food
Sunki
すんき
A rare pickle from the Kiso valley in Nagano, made by fermenting red turnip leaves and stems without any salt. Amber-coloured and pleasantly sour.
Key facts
- Registered as a protected name
- 26 May 2017
- Region
- Chubu
- Official name in Japanese
- すんき
- Official area (in Japanese)
- 長野県木曽郡木曽町、上松町、南木曽町、木祖村、王滝村、大桑村及び長野県塩尻市の一部（旧楢川村）（平成17年3月31日当時の長野県木曽郡）
A pickle with no salt
Almost every Japanese pickle uses salt. Sunki uses none. It is made from the leaves and stems of a red turnip native to the Kiso district, fermented only by lactic acid bacteria. The result is amber-coloured with a clean, yogurt-like sourness. Pickles like this are rare in Japan and abroad.
Born from scarcity
Kiso is a high, cold mountain valley in Nagano, well suited to red turnips. Salt was precious deep in the mountains, yet people still needed to keep vegetables through the winter, so a salt-free method grew up. It has been made for more than 300 years.
How to eat it
In Kiso, sunki goes into hot soba noodles (sunki soba), miso soup and onigiri. Its sourness works a little like sauerkraut.
Good to know
- The Kiso valley is home to the old Nakasendo post towns of Tsumago and Narai. Order sunki soba at a local noodle shop.
- Also from Nagano: Ichida Kaki, dried persimmons from the Ina valley.
Questions travellers ask
Does sunki contain salt?
No. It is fermented only with lactic acid bacteria and uses no salt at all.
Where is sunki made?
In the Kiso district of Nagano Prefecture, along the old Nakasendo road.
Where it comes from
More protected foods from the same area
Crafts from the same area
Heritage stories from the same area
- Chikuma, city of the moon: the moon in every rice terrace
- Katsuragi Shugen: where mountain asceticism began
- Kawachinagano: a town where the Middle Ages live on
- Nyonin Koya: the temples where women prayed instead of Mount Koya
- Oyama Mairi: the Edo people's pilgrimage and day out
- Starry Jomon highlands: obsidian mines of central Japan
- The Kiso Road: life in the mountains on the Nakasendo
- Ueda's Shioda-daira: the ley line of sun and earth
Sources
We checked the facts on this page against these sources.