🍲 Sumitsukare (Simmered Daikon Radish with Soy Beans)

Sumitsukare is a dish served with azuki beans and rice to Inari-sama on Hatsuuma, the first horse day of February, and is made by cooking grated daikon radish and carrot with soybeans and sake lees for the Setsubun holiday. It is also eaten in Ibaraki, Tochigi, Saitama, and other prefectures in addition to Chiba Prefecture, and is called “Sumitsukare,” “Shimotsukare,” “Somotsukare,” and so on, depending on the region. It is believed to have spread to the Higashi-katsushika region of Chiba Prefecture as a dish that has been handed down from the Edo period in Tochigi Prefecture. It is also mentioned in the “Uji Shui Monogatari” written in the Kamakura period (1185-1333), and has a very long history. Some say that it was called “shimotsukare” because it was a dish prepared as a family custom in Shimotsuke-no-kuni, while others say that it was called “sumitsukare” because of the vinegared way of making it. Setsubun means the day before Risshun (the beginning of spring), Rikka (the beginning of summer), Risshuu (the beginning of autumn), and Ritto (the beginning of winter), which means the division of the seasons. Since Risshun is the first day of the year in the lunar calendar, Setsubun day falls on New Year's Eve. Therefore, in Noda City, Chiba Prefecture, Setsubun was called "Toshikoshi" in ancient times. To welcome a good new year, people have a tradition of throwing beans on Setsubun day to pray for good health and to drive away evil spirits. There was also a custom of attaching a sardine head to a mamegara (bean stalk), a soybean branch, and holly to the entrance of a house as a charm against evil.