Toemon Nakajima (中島藤衛門 1745–1825)

Father of the Recipe for Powdered Konnyaku

At the time, cultivable land in mountain villages was not abundant. It was nevertheless possible to live and rely on the culture of konnyaku, paper mulberry and lacquer trees by growing them on slope land. However, since the konnyaku potatoes were transported as it is before any transformation, it would go bad quickly and, due to the their heavy weight, high shipping costs would also become a problem.

Nakajima then discovered that it was possible to ship konnyaku to more remote places by slicing and drying thin pieces of konnyaku potatoes. When rendered into a powdered form, it would become more resistant to the sun and much lighter for transportation purposes. Nakajima was then able to achieve a remarkable market expansion by managing his way to cities like Edo and Osaka.

Japanese version of this article available here.