Hiroko TANIYAMA and cooking : Eki-miso changed her life
This post is reposted from my old blog.
2016/08/16
Hiroko TANIYAMA got married in 1996. She was 40 years old. Some fans were very surprised because women beyond the 30-year-old are hard to get married in Japan. Her husband is Mr. Nakanishi. She often call him Mr. N (N氏) on her own site. In fact, he was her first love. They went to same junior high school. About 20 years later, they were reunited.
Cooking and married life
TANIYAMA didn't like cooking. When she was young, TANIYAMA tried cook. But she made a few mistakes. First, she cooked Japanese-style meal. Perhaps she was thinking this way. "I must cook Japanese-style meal. Because I'm Japanese. Everyone also cook and eat it." But she didn't like it so much. Second, she omitted cooking process. If you cook very well, you could omitted. You can judge cooking process. But TANIYAMA was not. Her challenge was failed. She stopped cooking.
After marriage almost Japanese women must cook everyday unfortunately. If you are woman and you are not good at cooking, your parents or a lot of men could criticize you like that, "You cannot get married! Wives must cook!" In addition to this, Japanese family cooking is very complicated. You must work (very long time) and cook for you and your husband (and your children). Impossible! Recently some men begun cook for his family at last.
But when TANIYAMA was young, married women must cook. So she was single. She told. "I cannot cook. So I don't marry. I ate a meal at the shop. I bought a cooked meal. Everyday I didn't cook."
In 1993 TANIYAMA and Mr. N were reunited. They got closer. She told him many times. "I don't cook. No problem?" He said. "No problem." So they get married.
Everyday they ate meals at the shop or bought cooked meals. Mr. N didn't get angry. TANIYAMA was relieved.
Hiroko TANIYAMA meets Eki-miso
In 2009 turning point has come. TANIYAMA found "Eki-miso." Eki-miso is a kind of miso. Miso is bean paste. When you cook miso soup, you need boil water, miso, and dashi (kelp soup or dried sardine soup). Nowadays some miso contains dashi (we call it dashi-iri-miso). Eki-miso also contain dashi. In addition, Eki-miso is liquid (actually "eki" means liquid). You could cook miso soup very easily.
Eki-miso (液みそ) by Marukome co., ltd.
TANIYAMA cooked miso soup with Eki-miso. It was very easy. Then she started cooking again. When she was young, she cooked Japanese-style meal (but she didn't like it). Now she cooked what she want to eat. And she cooked as recipes. Her cooking became well little by little.
She did it!!
When TANIYAMA found Eki-miso, she was already 52 or 53 years old. But she challenged cooking. I was very surprised. Old fans, too. TANIYAMA was being conducted nationwide solo tour. Her solo tour started in September. She was talking about Eki-miso and her challenge in many parts of the venue. But she didn't talk about it in December (in Kobe venue). So old fans thought. "She was tired of cooking. She stopped cooking."
Surprisingly TANIYAMA resumed cooking next year. A few years later, TANIYAMA requested a birthday gift to Mr. N. She got a new kitchen knife on her birthday (perhaps it was expensive). She had mastered her cooking style.
She talked. "Creatures ensure their own food. But I could not ensure my own food (because I could not cook). It was my weakness as a creature. So I'm glad to be able to cook."
It is never too late to start something.