Every June 30th, while most of the world is simply crossing off the mid-point of the calendar, Japan is quietly doing something far more deliberate: washing the first half of the year off itself.

It’s called NAGOSHI no HARAE (夏越の祓) — one of two great SHINTO purification rituals held each year, in June and again on December 31st. And unlike the big, well-known events on the Japanese calendar — Oshōgatsu (Japanese New Year), Hinamatsuri (Girl’s Day), Setsubun (Bean Throwing Event) — this one tends to slip by unnoticed. It doesn’t have the fanfare of bean-throwing or the visual beauty of Girls’ Day dolls. It’s quiet, understated, and all the more interesting for it.

The History and the Legend

NAGOSHI no HARAE is part of ŌHARAE (大祓), the Great Purification — a SHINTO ritual believed to cleanse people of the sins and impurities that accumulate in daily life, often without us even noticing. The June ceremony focuses specifically on the first half of the year.

At the heart of the ritual is the CHINO WA (茅の輪) — a giant ring woven from CHIGAYA reed, set up at shrine gates across Japan around this time of year. The custom of walking through it, known as CHINOWA KUGURI, is rooted in a very old legend involving a disguised god, two brothers — one wealthy and ungenerous, one poor but kind — and a grass talisman that ended up protecting an entire family line. What started as a small woven ring worn around the waist eventually grew into something large enough to walk through, until it became one of the quiet, enduring symbols of the Japanese ritual year.

NAGOSHI GOHAN: A Rice Bowl with a Story (and a Very Short History)

Most people, if they know any food associated with NAGOSHI no HARAE at all, know MINAZUKI — a triangular Kyoto WAGASHI (Japanese sweets) made of rice cake and azuki beans, eaten on this day since the HEIAN period (794 to 1185).

But there is another dish that has come to be associated with this day: NAGOSHI GOHAN.
What makes NAGOSHI GOHAN interesting is just how new it is. While the ritual itself is over a thousand years old, NAGOSHI GOHAN was only officially registered as a seasonal dish in 2015 — making it one of the youngest entries in Japan’s long food calendar. And yet everything about it reaches back into the legend.

It’s a rice bowl: mixed-grain rice, topped with a round KAKIAGE (shredded veggies) tempura. The round shape of the KAKIAGE is a direct reference to the CHINO WA ring itself. The mixed grains in the rice echo the legend of Somin Shōrai, the poor brother who welcomed the god into his home and fed him millet rice — a detail that sits quietly at the heart of the whole tradition. And red beans are folded in, as they almost always are in Japanese ritual food, for their long-held association with warding off evil.

A dish born in 2015 that somehow manages to carry a thousand years of symbolism. That, to me, is Japanese food culture at its most quietly brilliant.

KATSUO (Bonito): Why the First Bonito of the Season Is Something Special

For my NAGOSHI no HARAE table this year, I also made KATSUO no TATAKI — seared bonito — and I want to spend a moment on why this fish, at this time of year, matters.

Bonito is a fish with two seasons in Japan. The first arrival of the year — HATSU GATUO (初鰹), literally “the first bonito” — comes in spring and early summer, and it has been celebrated in Japan for centuries as one of the great seasonal ingredients. In Japanese food culture, there is a special reverence for “first things” — the first harvest, the first catch — and HATSU GATSUO carries all of that anticipation with it. Its arrival signals that early summer has truly begun.

What makes HATSU GATSUO particularly special is its character. Compared to the autumn bonito, which returns later in the year fat and rich after a summer of feeding, the first bonito is lean, clean, and firm — light on the palate in a way that feels exactly right for the season it arrives in. This is SHUN (旬) or “food in season” in action: the Japanese belief that nature provides what our bodies need, precisely when we need it.

And in this case, what our bodies need turns out to be quite a lot. KATSUO is one of the most nutritionally generous fish in the Japanese kitchen — high in protein, rich in iron (the kind most easily absorbed by the body), Vitamin B12, and DHA and EPA, the omega-3 fatty acids that support brain function and cardiovascular health. It is the kind of food that earns its place at the table on pure nutritional grounds, quite apart from how good it tastes.

I actually make a point of serving this to my teenage daughter whenever it’s in season. Growing teenagers need iron — more than most people realise — and KATSUO is one of the best natural sources around. She doesn’t always know why it appears on the table so often in May and June. But that’s rather the point of Japanese food wisdom: it works whether or not you know the reason.

How KATSUO no TATAKI (seared bonito) Is Eaten

In my photo, all you can see is a generous pile of red onions with shredded SHISO (perilla) greens — which is exactly right. KATSUO no TATAKI is traditionally served buried under YAKUMI （薬味）: pungent, aromatic condiments like thinly sliced onion, raw garlic, MYOGA (Japanese ginger), and shredded SHISO. Then comes a good pour of PONZU — a bright, citrusy soy sauce — over everything.

This way of eating KATSUO originates from TOSA, in KOCHI Prefecture on the island of SHIKOKU, where the fish is traditionally seared quickly over burning straw, giving the outside a faint smokiness while the inside stays completely raw. The combination of seared fish, bold YAKUMI, and sharp PONZU is one of those food experiences that stays with you — all contrast and brightness, and unmistakably of its season.

What I Cooked

For my own NAGOSHI no HARAE table this year:

NAGOSHI GOHAN — the mixed-grain rice bowl with round KAKI AGE, honoring both the ritual and its legend in a single bowl. Sesame TOFU (GOMA DOFU) — silky and rooted in temple cuisine, a dish born from restraint that feels quietly appropriate on a day dedicated to purification. And KATSUO no TATAKI — bonito at exactly the right moment, because the season said so.

None of this is coincidence. That’s the point.

Want to Cook This — and Learn the Full Story?

There’s a lot more behind NAGOSHI no HARAE than a ring of reeds and a rice cake — the legend that started it all, the exact ritual for passing through the CHINO WA, and why a single bowl of rice can carry over a thousand years of belief.

I walk through all of it — the history, the ritual, and the full recipes for this seasonal menu — in my cooking class at Wa + Sabi. If this story made you curious, and you’d love to cook the recipes using food in season with me, that’s exactly where it continues!

NB: This is a seasonal class, offered only in May, the month before NAGOSHI no HARAE. If the timing lines up for you next year, consider it a small stroke of luck.

[Book the class →]https://wasabiplus.com/cooking-classes-for-japanese-monthly-events/