Kusa-bishio (Vegetable sauce)

Kusa-bishio is an ancient seasoning of vegetables and seaweed fermented with salt. Counted among the three great sources of Japanese seasonings alongside meat and fish sauces.

Considered a prototype of modern nukazuke and asazuke. Fermentation broke down plant cell walls, extracting vegetable umami as liquid. People in ancient times empirically discovered the universal principle that salt and microorganisms extract umami from any substrate — animal or plant. The lineage of kusa-bishio lives on in modern pickling culture. Within the simple act of salting vegetables lies thousands of years of fermentation wisdom. It teaches the universality of fermentation.