🍲 Tara-Jiru (Codfish Soup)

"Tara-Jiru(Codfish soup)" is a one-pot dish of codfish and spring onions simmered in a miso-based broth. In Akita Prefecture, "Tara (=Codfish)" is a typical winter fish as well as "Hatahata(=sandfish)" and in season in winter because they come up to the shallows around February to spawn. The famous Kakeyo Matsuri, a Codfish festival held every year on February 4, the first day of spring, at the Kanaura-Yama Shrine in Nikaho City and known as a strange festival because of the way the people hang Codfish on a pole with a straw rope and carry them along the 2-kilometer route from the Kanaura Fishing Port to the Kanaura-yama Shrine, which is rare in the whole country. Kakeyo Matsuri is a traditional ritual in which fishermen offer big Codfish to local guardian god and Ebisu (one of the Seven Lucky Gods, and a god of prosperity) to pray for safety at sea and a bountiful catch, and has continued for over 300 years since the Genroku era. Tara-Jiru is a staple Akita winter dish that includes not only Codfish meat, but also Ara (bony parts and skin-on meat), liver, and soft roe, all of which are enjoyed during the most delicious cod season from late January to February.