A festival for tsukemono, Japanese pickles, is held every year in August at a shrine at Kayatsu Shrine. Priests, people from the industry, and regular participants offer prayers and then make a procession to Kōbutsuden (tsukemono pavilion), a place dedicated to tsukemono. There, participants make tsukemono, putting salt and vegetables that have been ritualistically cleansed into the ceramic pots to marinate. After several months, the resulting tsukemono is then offered to the Atsuta Jingu shrine as a sacred tribute.
The tsukemono (also called kōnomono) made at this festival is perhaps the simplest kind—vegetables added to salt and naturally fermented. But many other kinds of tsukemono can be produced. There are a variety of ways to marinate (in miso, sake lee, rice bran, etc.) and a variety of foods to pickle (cucumber, eggplants, plums, leafy greens, etc.). A wide variety of tsukemono have emerged in Japan as localities have made use...
University of California Press