The History of Sesame Products
Onizaki was founded relatively recently, a little over 50 years ago in 1956. Despite there being many longer-term players in the sesame business, we are nevertheless proud to boldly state that the history of Onizaki is without a doubt the history of sesame.
Until around 40 years ago, sesame was sold either as washed sesame or roasted sesame. Each household had to grind the sesame in an earthenware mortar before use, something that is hard to imagine from what we are used to nowadays. Before then, even washed sesame was not available. People had to buy sesame by weight and remove the dirt themselves. It was in such times that Onizaki was founded.
With the goal of providing a sesame product that could be consumed immediately at home, Onizaki sought to provide cleaned, pre-roasted sesame, and in so doing became a pioneer in the production of this and related products. Ready-to-eat ground sesame in small packages can be found everywhere today, but this is an example of a product that Onizaki managed to create only after much trial and error. The history of Onizaki is reflected in the variety and availability of such products today.
From a food culture viewpoint, the replacement of sesame, hand-ground in an earthenware mortar, with sesame produced in a factory may seem a little sad. However, rice provides a good parallel. We cannot imagine today how people used to mill rice at home with a mortar and pestle. We can even buy pre-washed rice, and products that are of a much higher level than traditionally milled rice are now available.
Today, Onizaki products are all produced in a modern factory. However, not all of them can be mass-produced. Our processing methods may differ from those for homemade ground sesame, but we are pursuing efforts to bring out the ultimate taste and fragrance of sesame by including hand processing in each operation. Onizaki's mission is to create sesame products that outperform the taste of homemade sesame. NEXT >
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