One of the popular local specialties of the Izumo region is “Izumo soba” or Izumo buckwheat noodles. The delicacy is one of the best-known soba noodles in Japan, along with wanko soba of Iwate and Togakushi soba of Nagano. Izumo soba comes in two styles: “wariko soba,” served cold on a round lacquerware called “wariko” and warm “kama-age soba,” served in a bowl immersed in hot water that was used to boil the noodles. Izumo soba noodles have a darker and stronger buckwheat flavor as they are made from buckwheat flour produced by grinding the whole seed.

Izumo soba has its roots in the soba (buckwheat) culture that had taken root as a disaster-relief food in Oku-Izumi region in the eastern part of the prefecture. Matsudaira Harusato, the 7th lord of the Matsue Domain, also known as Matsudaira Fumai, is said to have been particularly fond of Izumo soba so much so that he took the noodles on takagari hunting excursions that use birds of prey.

Sea bass gains fat and becomes even tastier from late autumn through early winter. The fish used to be an everyday food for the commoners of Izumo. Then came Matsudaira Harusato, the 7th lord of the Matsue Domain, popularly known as Matsudaira Fumai, who is credited with reviving the Matsue Domain. The lord came across some fishermen roasting sea bass on a fire near Lake Shinji and wanted to try it out. Thinking they could not dare to present an ash-coated fish, the fishermen wrapped it in hosho (fine-quality Japanese paper) and offered it to him. Lord Matsudaira loved the fish, saying, “This is so delicious!” The dish, which came to be known as “sea bass broiled in hosho,” is still served as a treat on festive occasions.

The Gono River, a class-A river running through the Iwami region, flows through the Chugoku Mountains and into the Sea of Japan. Mountainous areas and sloping basins are not suitable for farming, so people who lived there depended on barley and millet for their staple food instead of rice. Still, rivers in the region were a source of abundance as people caught different kinds of river fish such as crucian carp, eel, tsugani (Japanese mitten crab), and ayu (sweetfish) from early summer to autumn. Sweetfish was particularly popular among the common people. Sweetfish was used to make a variety of dishes including sushi and grilled fish coated with dengaku-style miso, not to mention the standard fare of grilled fish with salt. When there is a large catch, some of the sweetfish were dried and preserved for use as a fine dashi (soup stock) for New Year's dishes.

The coastal areas facing the Sea of Japan experience a relatively mild climate, thanks to the influence of the warm Tsushima Current. Coastal and offshore areas where warm and cold currents intermingle are excellent fishing grounds. Hamada City, which used to be the seat of the prefectural office of Hamada province, has also been a fishing community since ancient times. The city opened a fish market in 1887; the haul of sardines, horse mackerels, mackerels, and other types of fish grew after World War Two with the deployment of seine-haul fishing.

Heavy snowfall during the winter season is not an unusual sight here in the mountains. The Hikimi district experiences the largest snowfall in Masuda City, which extends into the Chugoku Mountains in the south. With much of the area covered in forested mountains, Hikimi is known as the westernmost area to have heavy snowfall in Japan. Prior to the establishment of critical infrastructure, women got down to plaiting straw bags for charcoal and paper making while men started making charcoal with the arrival of the severe winter. People depended on rice, grains, and beans that had been stored to make meals throughout the winter. It was a dish named “uzume-meshi” that was appreciated as a hot food during the cold season.

With “uzume-meshi,” what seems like a simple bowl of white rice conceals a bed of stir-fried and simmered carrots, shiitake mushrooms, burdock roots, and other ingredients at the bottom of the bowl. There are many theories as to how this unusual recipe came into being. Some say that people made this dish to hide the ingredients they thought were meager while others say it was done to bury items that would have been considered indulgent at a time when people were told to lead a frugal and humble life. This representative dish of the region was selected as one of “Japan's five best rice dishes” in 1939.

The areas around the Oki Islands are rich in marine resources, thanks to the complex ocean currents and islands, and freshly caught seafood has been part of the diet of people in these areas for a long time. A wide range of seaweed including arame, iwanori, wakame, jinba (young leaves of hondawara), mozuku, tengusa and hijiki is harvested in these areas. By the Meiji era, people were eating rice and barley as their staple food and “sazae-meshi” (rice with horned turban), “ika-meshi” (rice with squid), and “takikomi rice,” rice cooked with seaweed were part of their daily diet. “Bakudan onigiri,” or big rice balls resembling a bomb, wrapped in iwanori steeped in soy sauce, is the soul food of locals on the islands. Everyone, young and old, loves to take a big bite and enjoy the flavor of seaweed.

An environment that is surrounded by the sea promoted the development of a unique seasoning culture. One example is the “kojoyu miso,” a fermented food that is somewhere between miso and soy sauce that contains fragments of soybean and barley grains. It is said that the use of soy sauce on the islands spread only after the Meiji era, and even after the large-scale production of soy sauce began, people continued to make “kojoyu miso” at home. Kojoyu miso is an essential ingredient for “yakimeshi,” or grilled barley onigiri rice balls. Legend has it that yakimeshi was the favorite food of the Emperor Go-Toba, who spent 19 years on the island.