Everything but the Taste: Kyoto’s Shishigatani Squash as Culinary Heritage

Abstract

The Shishigatani kabocha, an heirloom squash variety cultivated in Japan’s Kyoto Prefecture, epitomizes the celebrated un-delicious. Farmers, retailers, local officials, and consumers describe this heirloom variety as difficult to prepare and “not delicious.” Yet the squash is valued: Kyoto City restaurants display it outside with other local produce to attract customers, and upscale department stores all over Japan feature it prominently in produce sections dedicated to heirloom vegetables. Kyoto’s Anraku Temple even holds a yearly Shishigatani kabocha “mass” that attracts hundreds of visitors. This paper examines the reasons for the Shishigatani kabocha’s appeal and argues that cultural embeddedness and distinct attributes including an unusual shape can compensate for a less delicious flavor profile. In this paper, data obtained from interviews with farmers, local officials, retailers, and consumers are used, as well as participant observation at events including the annual “mass” at Anraku Temple. Comparing the Shishigatani kabocha with other heirloom vegetable varieties that have had less success reveals lessons about taste, agrobiodiversity, and the market potential of less palatable heirloom varieties.

Keywords:

• Cucurbita
• kabocha
• heirloom vegetables
• taste
• value
• tradition
• culinary tourism
• branding
• Japan
• Kyoto

Acknowledgments

First and foremost, the author would like to thank the many people in Kyoto who helped him with this research, including Itō Azumi, her family, and the volunteers at Anraku Temple’s kuyō; retailers at Nishiki Market; Yamashita Michihiro and the staff at the Kyō no Furusato Sanpin Kyōkai; farmers who grow the kabocha; and Fushiki Tohru, Ishii Maki, and Hanabuchi Satoko at Ryūkoku University. The author is grateful for financial assistance provided by the “Integration research for agriculture and interdisciplinary fields” grant. He also thanks the anonymous reviewers who carefully read earlier versions of this manuscript and provided constructive feedback on strengthening it, and also Theresa Miller, who has been the ideal collaborator throughout the evolution of this special issue from conference panel in planning.

Notes

1. Vegetables from Kyoto are described and marketed using several different but overlapping categories (de St. Maurice 2013, Rath 2014). The term “Kyoto vegetable” is frequently encountered in Kyoto, but has no official definition. The category “Kyoto traditional vegetable” (Kyō no dentō yasai) refers to varieties (including extinct varieties) that were cultivated within the prefecture before the Meiji era. Kyoto prefecture uses the Kyō Brand to sell agricultural products from the prefecture, including vegetable varieties, but also other items such as tilefish (locally known as guji) and sake made from the local sake rice variety known as iwaimai. Kyoto city includes vegetable varieties like broccoli and sweet corn among its Kyō no shun yasai (Kyoto seasonal vegetables). Miyako yasai is a less frequently used category (miyako being an old name for Kyoto City that also means “capital”).

2. Taxonomically, the genus Cucurbita includes varieties that are labeled pumpkins, squashes, and gourds. Harry Paris identifies the following distinctions in terminology: “pumpkin” refers to palatable varieties that are round or close to it; “squash” refers to palatable varieties that are neither round nor close to being so; “gourd” refers to unpalatable varieties, many of which are small, and which may also be bitter (Paris 2001, 75). Here I primarily rely on the term kabocha, meaning “squash” or “pumpkin,” because it is the word used in Japanese. It should not be confused, however, with the Cucurbita Kabocha group, which consists of hybrid varieties of C. maxima Duch. and C. moschata Duch. (Jeffrey 2001, 1545). While English translations sometimes use the world “pumpkin” to refer to the heirloom variety, I use the word “squash” since the hourglass shape of the Shishigatani variety is its distinguishing feature (i.e. it is definitely not round). Nor is it considered a gourd (hyōtan) in Japanese, since its shape is said to be “gourd-like.”