Tsukemono Pickles: Methods and Classics
Eleven pages: the method system (salt, bran, miso, lees, vinegar, quick), then the four named classics every visitor meets.
The full list sits in the frame below - it scrolls inside the frame so the rest of the page stays close.
What Are Tsukemono (Japanese Pickles)?
Vegetables (and some fruit) preserved and flavoured by salt, bran, miso, kasu or vinegar - served in small amounts with rice.Shiozuke (Salt Pickles)
The oldest method: vegetables salted to draw out water, then kept or pressed - the base technique behind many regional pickles.Asazuke (Quick Pickles)
Lightly salted vegetables rested for hours, not weeks - the fresh, crunchy pickle of the modern Japanese table.Nukazuke and the Nukadoko Bed
Vegetables fermented in a bed of rice bran, salt and water - a living culture handed down and stirred in Japanese kitchens.Misozuke (Miso Pickles)
Vegetables rested in miso until the paste seasons them through - a pickle and a use for miso in one.Kasuzuke (Sake-Lees Pickles)
Vegetables or fish rested in sake lees - the pickle with the aroma of sake itself, famous in Nara's narazuke form.Suzuke (Vinegar Pickles)
Vegetables in sweetened vinegar - bright, keeping pickles that preserve by added acid rather than fermentation.Umeboshi (Pickled Ume)
Ume fruit salted and dried, often reddened with red shiso - the intensely sour-salty pickle at the centre of a bento.Takuan (Pickled Daikon)
Daikon radish dried, then pickled - classically in rice bran and salt - to the yellow, crunchy pickle sliced beside rice.Shibazuke (Kyoto)
Kyoto's purple pickle: aubergine, cucumber and red shiso salt-pickled together until the shiso colours everything.Fukujinzuke
The sweet, dark, chopped pickle served with Japanese curry - included here with an honesty note: it is a soy-sauce pickle, not a ferment.
Vegetables (and some fruit) preserved and flavoured by salt, bran, miso, kasu or vinegar - served in small amounts with rice.Shiozuke (Salt Pickles)
The oldest method: vegetables salted to draw out water, then kept or pressed - the base technique behind many regional pickles.Asazuke (Quick Pickles)
Lightly salted vegetables rested for hours, not weeks - the fresh, crunchy pickle of the modern Japanese table.Nukazuke and the Nukadoko Bed
Vegetables fermented in a bed of rice bran, salt and water - a living culture handed down and stirred in Japanese kitchens.Misozuke (Miso Pickles)
Vegetables rested in miso until the paste seasons them through - a pickle and a use for miso in one.Kasuzuke (Sake-Lees Pickles)
Vegetables or fish rested in sake lees - the pickle with the aroma of sake itself, famous in Nara's narazuke form.Suzuke (Vinegar Pickles)
Vegetables in sweetened vinegar - bright, keeping pickles that preserve by added acid rather than fermentation.Umeboshi (Pickled Ume)
Ume fruit salted and dried, often reddened with red shiso - the intensely sour-salty pickle at the centre of a bento.Takuan (Pickled Daikon)
Daikon radish dried, then pickled - classically in rice bran and salt - to the yellow, crunchy pickle sliced beside rice.Shibazuke (Kyoto)
Kyoto's purple pickle: aubergine, cucumber and red shiso salt-pickled together until the shiso colours everything.Fukujinzuke
The sweet, dark, chopped pickle served with Japanese curry - included here with an honesty note: it is a soy-sauce pickle, not a ferment.
Sources: Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries (MAFF), 'Traditional Foods in Japan'; JAS soy sauce standards; Umami Information Center; Kikkoman official information; Wikipedia (CC BY-SA 4.0). Checked 6 November 2026.
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