The difference between koji and koji | Amazake specialty store Ren MURO Muro [official mail order]

Hello. This is Ren MURO , a store specializing in rice koji amazake.

 

Suddenly, while looking at various rice koji amazake, I had a question.

“ What is the difference between koji and koji? 』

about it. Readers may have wondered. So let's take a look at the differences.

 

First of all, it seems that the kanji "Koji" was made in Japan in the Meiji era, that is, it is a Japanese kanji. The origin of this shape is that when making rice koji, the way the koji mold takes root in the steamed rice looks like a white flower blooming on top of the rice. It seems that it has come to be written as "Koji". So, this kanji character is only used for koji made by fermenting steamed rice with koji mold, that is, rice koji. Therefore, koji fermented with something other than rice, such as soybeans, cannot use the kanji character for koji.

Occasionally, you may come across a shop labeled "Kojiya," but it is a shop that specializes only in rice koji.

 

On the other hand, the kanji character for “koji” is said to be an old kanji character that was originally introduced from China. “Koji” differs from “koji” in that it is used not only for rice, but for all types of koji made from grains other than rice, such as barley and soybeans. If it is barley, it will be barley koji, and if it is beans, it will be soybean koji. There are various theories about the origin of kanji characters for koji, but it seems that there are still many unclear points and it is not clear.

There is also a shop called "Kojiya" just like "Kojiya", and there is a high possibility that there is a store that handles barley koji and soybean koji in addition to rice koji.

 

Since it's a big deal, I tried to summarize the foods that use each type of koji.

・Rice malt : rice miso, rice malt amazake, sake, mirin, etc.

・Barley koji : barley miso, shochu, etc.

・Soybean koji : soybean miso

 

Looking at it this way, you can see that koji is involved in various foods. As you can see, aspergillus oryzae proliferates by decomposing starch and protein, so grains containing starch can be fermented, albeit with a difference.

As an aside, there was a customer who had visited the store before and purchased koji mold (only available at the store), and he said that he had also made corn koji and pumpkin koji. . I was surprised by the point of view of that person, but the power of koji mold is amazing.

Thank you very much for reading to the end today.

 

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Noren MURO Kagurazaka

Address: 1-12-6 Kagurazaka , Shinjuku -ku, Tokyo 162-0825

Phone number: 03-5579-2910

Website URL : http://noren-japan.jp/store/murokagurazaka/

EC site URL : https://koujiamasake.jp/

Instagram : https://www.instagram.com/noren_muro/