Shaved ice in Nikko

By Yasushi Wada Daily Yomiuri Photographer

Mouth-cooling delight

The "himuro" (ice room) wooden cottage used for storing natural ice, is in a mountainous area a 10-minute drive from the center of Nikko, Tochigi Prefecture.

Beside the building, which is more than 60 years old, is a pond where natural ice forms in winter. The pond is fed by spring water from nearby mountain streams.

It is owned by Shogetsu Hyoshitsu, a company established in 1894 to make and sell natural ice. When I visited the facility, some of the natural ice was being shipped out. Himuro also can be read hyoshitsu.

Natural ice is made from Nikko's abundant water supply and cold climate. Currently in Japan, natural ice is made only at five sites--three in Nikko, one in Karuizawamachi, Nagano Prefecture, and one in Chichibu, Saitama Prefecture.

Inside the ice room in Nikko, sawdust was piled up nearly three meters high. Digging into the sawdust about 50 centimeters deep with a shovel revealed neatly lined stacked blocks of ice.

About 30 percent of the natural ice the company makes in winter would melt by the following autumn, company officials said.

Masao Yoshiara, the fourth-generation president of the company, said: "In Nikko, the daily lowest temperature in winter averages around minus 10 C, ideal for making crystal-clear ice.

"If it's colder than that, ice can be made quickly but it is not solid enough. Here, ice grows 1 centimeter thicker a day. When ice becomes about 15 centimeters thick over half a month, we cut out ice blocks. If an ice block is thicker than that, it contains cracks."

When I visited one Thursday, 60 ice blocks, each weighing 50 kilograms, were loaded into an insulated van for weekend shipment.

The ice blocks are sold on a wholesale basis to restaurants or sold by the company as shaved ice with various flavors.

Employees of the company shave the natural ice as thin as possible to make cups of shaved ice. Because the ice formed slowly it is hard and tight, so the shaved ice melts slowly despite being very thin, the officials said.

I sampled the shaved ice and found it had a soft taste and quickly melted in my mouth. It definitely wins a gold medal in my book.

* Shogetsu Hyoshitsu

Address: Imaichi 379, Nikko, Tochigi Prefecture

Telephone: (0288) 21-0162