Kinzanji miso

People first started making Kinzanji miso about 750 years ago, in the Kamakura period.
Hoto Kokushi Kakushin, founder of the Kokoku-ji Temple in the town of Yura travelled to China during the Song dynasty for Zen Buddhist training. It is said that he brought back the method of making miso that he ate at Jingshan Temple in Zhejiang Province when he returned home in 1254.
Kinzanji miso is a type of flavored miso that is different from the miso we use to flavor foods like miso soup. It is not often seen in the Kanto region of Japan but is a popular food in Wakayama Prefecture and other parts of Kansai.
The priests at the Jingshan Temple devised this food to preserve summer vegetables until the winter, and it is packed with ingredients like pickling melon and round eggplant.
It is excellent on rice or as a snack with sake. It is as essential as the Kishu umeboshi when having tea flavoured rice gruel that is a favorite known as okaisan in Kishu.

Soy sauce

People began making miso with the Kinzanji miso method that Kakushin, a Zen priest native to Shinshu (Shinano province), brought back from China in 1254 (the Kamakura period). When teaching the method to the villagers in Yuasa, Kishu, they realized that the liquid seeping out from the miso paste was delicious, and became the type of soy sauce called tamarishoyu.
There are three soy sauce breweries in the urban area of Tanabe. Their production volume is small, but they make soy sauce using traditional methods and natural fermentation, focusing on the unique taste that can only be achieved through handmade production.

Yubeshi

Said to have been created in the Gempei period (late 11th to late 12th century), it was more of a preserved food or portable food than a confection but eventually evolved into the treat we know today.
They currently come in three types: delicacies, a type of Japanese confection (like steamed cakes and bean jam cakes), or “other.”
They come in all different shapes and flavors around the country, each place with its own production methods. Some connoisseurs even make it a hobby to try yubeshi from all over the country.

Sake

You can get local sakes made from locally-grown rice and craft beer made at local breweries.

Council members that sell miso and/or soy sauce products

Council members that sell sake