How Do We Pass the Value of Fermentation on to the Next Generation?

Fermentation is not simply a technique for making food. It is a practice of living alongside nature, respecting time, and carrying culture forward. As an educator of fermentation, I consider how we can nurture curiosity, deepen learning, and share experiences so that future generations can value and carry this living cultural heritage forward.

India and Japan both have rich fermentation cultures that have been nurtured throughout their long histories.

Since ancient times, people have used the power of invisible microorganisms to transform food, making use of nature’s bounty without waste. Fermentation is not simply a technique for preserving food. It is an irreplaceable culture born from the climate, ingredients, and wisdom of the people of each place.

In Japan, fermented foods such as miso, soy sauce, sake, and pickles have supported the dining table and been passed down through generations. However, this culture is now undergoing significant change.

Consider soy sauce, for example. It is one of Japan’s most representative traditional fermented seasonings and an indispensable part of Japanese cuisine. Yet over the past 50 years, per-capita soy sauce consumption in Japan has fallen to one-quarter of what it was, while the number of soy sauce producers has also declined significantly.

What this change represents is not simply a decline in the consumption of one seasoning.

It points to a larger problem: the “local flavours” that have been nurtured over many years throughout Japan are gradually being lost.

Originally, fermentation was a form of wisdom developed to preserve ingredients available in each particular region.

People created fermented foods according to the climate and environment of their surroundings, and these foods became deeply connected to the way people lived, as well as to the culture and history of each place.

In other words, fermented foods carry the memory of the land within them.

That is why the loss of fermented foods means more than the disappearance of a particular food.

It also means the loss of the culture unique to that place, and of the wisdom passed down through generations.

So, what can we do to carry this precious culture into the future?

One way is to support the makers who continue producing fermented foods using traditional methods.

Brewers and makers are not simply producing food.

They are custodians of a culture, carrying techniques and flavours passed down across generations and delivering them to the future.

They often say:

“We are not making the food. We are simply creating an environment in which the microorganisms can do their work.”

These words reveal something essential about Japanese fermentation culture.

Rather than trying to control everything ourselves, we work together with nature and the power of microorganisms to create something.

That is fermentation.

There is another way, too:

We can become participants in fermentation culture ourselves.

Make miso.

Brew soy sauce.

Cultivate koji.

By making fermented foods with our own hands, we begin to understand how food comes into being and experience its transformation over time through all five senses.

Experiences gained through the five senses remain not simply as knowledge, but as memories.

And those memories are what give us the power to pass culture on to the next generation.

Fermentation is a gift we have received from the past.

But simply preserving it is not enough to carry it into the future.

By tasting it, experiencing it, and making it part of our own memories, we can finally pass it on to the next generation.

Meeting the people who make it.

Tasting fermented foods.

Trying to make them with our own hands.

These accumulated experiences give us the strength to carry the culinary wisdom inherited from the past into the future.

Fermentation cultures have developed in different forms in different places.

Yet the question of how we pass their value on to the next generation is not one that belongs to Japan alone.

It is a question shared by fermentation cultures around the world.

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About the Author

Mutsumi Komune

Mutsumi Komune is a Tokyo-based English interpreter and instructor with over twenty years of experience. Today, she focuses on sharing Japan’s rich fermentation and brewing culture; including sake, miso, mirin, and soy sauce; with the world. Through brewery tour interpretation, fermentation workshops, content creation, and curated events, she brings the authentic flavors of Japan and the craftsmanship behind them to a global audience.