Microseason: Wild Geese Return

AUTUMN

COLD DEW

WILD GEESE RETURN

8 - 12 October

This time of year is know for chestnut preparation of all sorts. And for us in Japan, the news is that this year’s harvest is abundant.

In addition to plating using seasonal chestnut leaves, there are sweet and savory applications of course. The bitter skin is sometimes intentionally left in tact to create a complex flavor profile when sweet braising.

In textile, brown outer shell of the nut is commonly used to achieve an array of earthy tones in botanical dye technique.

The wood has been used as highly durable construction material for nearly 10-thousand years in Japan. Traditional carpentry carve a chevron designs called naguri into key architecture facades like the main gate. The tannin content in the wood keeps insects and bacteria at bay. In railroads, chestnut wood was used as the base onto which iron rails would be laid.

Our native animistic culture pays deep respect to the chestnut tree because of the great value it has to the survival humankind. It is one of the many gods of the natural world and there are vast variety of legends depending on where you are in the archipelago. Whenever we come upon a particularly chestnut tree-dense part of the mountains, we know that there was once a village there.

Photo credit: Momoko Nakamura