Shinshu soba is the general term for all soba made in the Shinshu area, which is Nagano Prefecture. And in the same aspect, Togakushi soba are soba made in Togakushi area. Togakushi soba is made by pounding the buckwheat seeds harvested locally with the fresh spring water of the area. Originally created as an offering to the Gods, five bundles of Togakushi soba are delicately arranged on a serving colander as the final presentation of the dish.

It starts with milling the harvested buckwheat seeds. After milling, the buckwheat flour is mixed with wheat flour in the ratio of 8:2, followed by adding water, kneading, stretching, and cutting the dough in equal pieces. As buckwheat flour does not stretch easily, and when the milling technology was still underdeveloped, soba chefs have to hit the dough with a stick manually, which gives the name of “hitting” to the process of stretching. In recent years, to save space and eliminate dough loss, it is common to use three sticks to roll out the dough into squares, but at Yamaguchiya, we make the dough using the traditional method of rolling it out the dough in a circular form with a single stick.

One of the best ways to enjoy Togakushi Soba is through zaru soba style, which is dry cold soba with dipping sauce. You can eat the zaru soba any way you like, but I would recommend tasting the flavour and texture of soba without adding any sauce or condiments first. Finally, with zaru soba you can get to experience the culture of “Sobayu”, which the broth used to cook the soba noodles are added in the leftover sauce to create a nutritional soup.