“Sanuki udon is the soul food of Kagawa,” remarks Hideo Tadokoro, owner of several fine dining establishments, including the sake-themed restaurants Sake Tottari and Akatsuki no Kura in Yokohama, both of which proudly serve Kagawa’s own Kawatsuru sake among their selections. He speaks like the true Kagawa native he is and encourages me to delve deeper.
I’m certainly more than a little familiar with the thick, chewy noodle dish in umami-rich broth typically flavored with niboshi (small dried sardines). Years ago, I had a corporate gig in Kagawa that would take me there twice a month on the weekends. I often ate at casual noodle shops because the fare was surprisingly good for its price. In classier restaurants specializing in udon, whether in Kagawa or elsewhere, I’d often opt for the Sanuki version. What’s there to dislike about this dish? Its other basic components are wheat flour, salt and soy sauce…maybe ginger and green onions as well. But just as the simple ingredients of pizza crust can yield widely different results in quality, so too does Sanuki udon require skilled hands and tradition to taste authentic.
Many might associate pizza with New York, or fish and chips with London and Lancashire. Ask anyone in Japan what comes to mind with Kagawa and they’ll answer Sanuki udon. There are more establishments per capita than anywhere else in Japan, and Sanuki udon tourism is a real thing. It’s a leading reason people visit Kagawa and thousands do every year–the prefectural tourism board even keeps stats on people who visit for this reason.
While national consciousness of Sanuki udon hailing from Kagawa seems to have developed in the 1960s and 70s, just as the country’s post-war economic rise was introducing modern concepts of branding with regional products, the history of Sanuki udon’s production and consumption dates back hundreds of years, when Kagawa was a medieval province that went by the name of Sanuki. The mild, sunny climate of the Seto Inland Sea and the flat geography was conducive to grain farming; wheat was added alongside rice that farmers had been cultivating since time immemorial. As merchant commerce became more sophisticated during medieval times, soy sauce production flourished. Several locales in the area were quite good at it. Then in the early 19th century, salt farms were established in the province. Geography is the reason why we have Sanuki udon in Kagawa.
Extent texts provide more clues to its rise. There is literature pointing to udon shops in Sanuki in the early 18th century. Other records indicate that shops were probably in no small supply either. In the Edo Era (1603-1868), travel and all the trappings of capitalism grew, resulting in lodgings in Kagawa that often featured udon shops on their first floor. Many hotels in Japan continue this tradition today.
The 20th century brought yatai–those charming, portable street stalls–and udon’s popularity only grew all the more as a common offering. Industrialization then introduced mass-production facilities for noodles all across Japan, though the tradition of making thick noodles by hand persisted in Kagawa. After World War II, when wheat flour was scarce, Sanuki udon made a comeback thanks to blackmarket flour. In the years that followed, udon made for cheap, easy meals for Kagawa families. Eateries offering the staple subsequently proliferated and by the 1960s it was on menus all across the prefecture. Soon, shops specializing exclusively in udon would appear and mass media was not far behind in covering it. Udon’s place in Kagawa’s culture was becoming unassailable.
Eventually, successful shops opened other branches and spread well beyond Kagawa’s borders. Media fixation continued, leading to several Kagawa udon travel booms starting from the late 1980s (Japan has cyclical product booms all the time, fed by the media). In Japan, official designation (like “bourbon” or “champagne”) is still being explored and tested, but in the early 2000s the udon industry agreed to formally name Kagawa’s udon what everyone already colloquially knew it by: Sanuki udon. Still, it had not yet reached its full heights.
We might ask if it even has today, despite its stature. Its Japanese Wikipedia page (which provided useful secondary sources for this article) is longer and more meticulously footnoted and edited than most pages for historical figures. In 2011, the prefectural government and tourism association launched a campaign dubbing Kagawa “Udon Prefecture”. A handful of udon restaurants have gone international, with notable success, and Sanuki udon is a driver of that.
As a part of my deeper dive into udon, the aforementioned Tadokoro introduced me to Kodawari Menya, his recommendation if you seek Sanuki udon at the source. It’s Kagawa’s most-visited udon restaurant, with twelve branches across the prefecture. I had the pleasure of speaking with the company president, Keisuke Konishi (who also provided pictures and support for this article). Like other artisanal udon operators in the prefecture, they pay particular attention to the cultivation and sourcing of their ingredients; it’s a matter of pride as much as quality. In the kingdom of udon, with a legacy built over centuries to burnish, you can’t strive for anything less than excellence! The ancestors wouldn’t approve, much less the customers.
Kodawari Menya is of course not the only path to udon delight in Kagawa. There are many resources available online, including videos, that provide respectable leads if you’re planning a trip. If you do, you might consider trying to schedule it during the Setouchi Triennale art festival. Otherwise, you’re likely to pass through Takamatsu City, the main metropolitan area. Attractions include the stunning Ritsurin Garden and cruises of the Seto Inland Sea. I trust you’ll find the good Kagawa sake easily enough.
