Our Story

Earnest is a third generation Japanese American born in Portland, Oregon. His father was Nisei (second generation Japanese American) and his mother was from Japan. When he was a kid, his mother would make miso soup and tsukemono (Japanese pickles) at home. While he had no problem eating these at home, these Japanese foods were not found in any American marketplaces at the time, unless one went to a Japanese restaurant, or to another Japanese American family’s home, or to a Japanese market. So he didn’t think much of these foods while growing up, since people would give you a weird look if you ate something strange and unfamiliar to the average American in those days. And not eating Japanese foods in public was a common tactic to avoid being bullied by the other kids, who were mostly caucasian. Of course, things have changed tremendously in Portland since those days. Earnest, however, never even dreamed he would be in business making a traditional Japanese food like Miso when he grew up.

When he was 25, his life took a drastic change…after he spent nearly a year trying to find a job in Portland, having graduated from college, Earnest managed to find a job teaching Business English in Japan. He moved to Yokohama, and he realized immediately that the Japanese foods he had eaten in Portland were just the tip of the iceberg of what he found there. All sorts of dishes like: gyudon (beef bowl), okonomiyaki, yakitori, bentos, tachigui soba (fast food noodle shop stalls that were standing room only), gyoza, and so many types of ramen, and a myriad of wagashi (Japanese sweets) variations…and all different types of miso were available to try and enjoy…he checked most of them out…but still, he never considered making miso during this time…

Five years after arriving in Japan, he met Sumiko, and the two got married. They had a modest lifestyle over the next couple of years, but the economy began to falter by 1993, and the two decided that moving to Portland might offer something better. So in the fall of 1994, they moved to Portland.

In 1995, Sumiko began making miso in Portland, because miso is a staple ingredient in so many different Japanese cuisines; since it was hard to get hand-crafted miso, like her mother used to make, in Portland, Sumiko knew she’d have to make it herself from scratch, if she wanted to continue the tradition in America. So she brought several miso making books and some simple miso making tools with her when she moved to there.

After some trial and error of making several batches, she finally made some miso she was satisfied with. She offered some to her friends in Portland, and they loved it. “Why not try selling it?” they said to her, so she began researching how to start a business with Earnest. 

She named their miso Jorinji Miso, because many traditional hand-crafted miso were originally made by the priests at temples, and Jorinji was a variation of the name from a site near her hometown in Japan called Heirinji Temple. Jorinji means “Success Forest Temple” and would work perfectly for her vision of Portland and Oregon.

Making miso takes time to ferment properly, so the early years were filled with hits and misses. They slowly worked on creating labels, sourcing ingredients, worked on food demos, and finding markets that would allow them to sell their products on the shelves.

In 1996, they began selling at a small shop called Limbo, in SE Portland, where it became popular. This was followed by another shop called Anzen, and then Uwajimaya in 1998. After some failed attempts, they were finally able to get Jorinji Miso onto the shelves at New Seasons Markets. By the early 2000’s, they were in the coops. Over the next decade, they would both be busy making miso and selling it at the various markets around the Portland area.

As things looked like they would begin to stabilize, Sumiko suddenly passed in the autumn of 2013.

The death of his wife and business partner left Earnest devastated. Unsure of whether he could continue running the business solo, he struggled trying to decide what the future held for him and the business. At one point, just when he was about to throw in the towel, he received an email from a customer/vendor who was worried she could not keep buying Jorinji Miso. “Please don’t stop making Jorinji Miso! I need it for my product that I sell at the Farmer's Market!” The vendor was Mio Asaka of Mio’s Delectables.

Friends came by to help him when they could. Some helped with production. Some with distribution. And some to simply talk and offer suggestions on what he should do next. Going solo, however, took a lot longer to get everything done than when he and Sumiko were working together.  This greatly affected how much he could make at one time, and production levels dropped. Stumbling along as best as he could, Earnest continued making Jorinji at a reduced rate, trying to balance things out. Reluctantly, he had to drop out of most of the New Seasons markets and some of the coops, since he could not supply enough miso for all of the shops. These were particularly dark times for Jorinji and Earnest.

Then a chance meeting at a Farmer’s Market in June of 2015, Earnest was introduced to Yuri, by Mio Asaka. Yuri was learning English conversation in Portland, and had heard about a miso maker also in the city. Yuri was interested to see how things were done in the US, and agreed to come and check things out during the initial meeting.

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Yuri grew up in Toyama, Japan, located in the middle of the nation, along the coastline of the Sea of Japan; the prefecture is surrounded by nature, and has an abundance of great food from the sea and mountains. Her grand parents’ home was in a rural area, and they produced most of stuff they needed themselves…like rice, various vegetables and fruits; after the harvest, they made various preserved food like pickles and dried veggies. And they also made miso every year with ingredients they harvested. Miso making was considered one of their most important annual tasks. Yuri also used to join in these activities. Even though some of the details are a bit fuzzy now, she does recall some vivid scenes regarding the miso making process. This was a common theme repeated in many Japanese households in the past. Kids learning to make their own miso at home with their families, and growing up understanding the importance of miso in their daily lives through such experiences—with miso cuisines unique to each family. This was a tradition of Japan.

When she moved to Tokyo, Yuri’s lifestyle changed completely. After 2 years of student life, she worked as a computer system engineer for 20 years. Fortunately, this was a great opportunity for her to to acquire IT skills, design systems for business solutions, and to meet many great customers and colleagues. However, a result of the work-focused daily grind lifestyle caused her to get stuck routinely eating out, since she didn’t have time to make her own meals. There was no chance to even consider doing anything like what she did when she lived back in Toyama.

Then Yuri shifted her 2nd career adventure to become a manager at a Farm to Table style restaurant in Tokyo, called Roppongi Nouen (Unfortunately, that restaurant closed in 2015). Roppongi Nouen sourced their ingredients directly from various growers around Japan, something that is still a rarity nationwide. Also what made the restaurant interesting included not only serving the food, but to be able to listen to the producer’s story, understanding the particulars of their production methods, including the characteristics of the area they lived in, as well as the unique culture in that region; they would also invite these producers to hold PR event workshops together at the restaurant. These were among the reasons why she chose this stage for her new adventures, even though it meant she had to drop her 20 year IT career in order to do so. She wanted to get back to her ROOTS. Back to the experiences of her childhood— back to Japanese Tradition. As the years passed, these traditions became more precious and held value for Yuri, and through this job she wanted to preserve them for other Tokyo urbanites, especially for the busy workers (like Yuri used to be) would know about them. 

4 years on the job, Yuri came to know many producers around Japan. Sometimes she visited them to see directly how the produce were grown, how the traditional seasonings such as: soy sauce, mirin (sweet sake), or miso were made. This was when Yuri grew deeply interested in the arts of fermentation—but she never imagined she would become one of these fermenters in the future.

In the spring of 2015, Yuri wanted to further develop the skills she had acquired so far, to introduce Japan’s food producers and food culture to visitors to Japan, or to those foreigners already living there. To do this, she went to Portland, Oregon and started a new chapter of her life there. She began learning conversational English in order to explain to foreigners, living or visiting Japan, about the great food, their producers and the food culture of Japan. Even though her school life was fulfilling, she found it difficult to improve her English skills enough to be able to talk with people naturally. So 3 months after arrival, Yuri began working as a volunteer staff at Mio’s Delectables, a pastry business owned by a Japanese woman. The shop had two separate locations at the Portland Farmers Market. Every week many people would come to visit, and they were all very friendly and loved food. The atmosphere made Yuri open up and feel free to speak English. 

Eventually, Yuri met Earnest at the farmers market and heard that he was doing a miso business in Portland. Yuri was surprised by this, and she visited Earnest’s place to see his miso production soon after. Yuri was also surprised the miso Earnest made was very tasty—that it really had the hand-crafted miso’s flavor, texture and consistency. She learned about his situation, and she felt it would be sad if Earnest had to quit this business because of his hardship; so she decided to help him out as much as she could during her stay in Portland. 

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This began the challenges for Earnest and Yuri. They visited Japan together, and researched how they could enhance their business. After returning to Portland, with some useful information and ideas, the two began working on new procedures. They worked hard to increase production and improve the quality of their products. Meanwhile, they visited grocery stores again and again to promote their products. Once their products began to sell at the stores, they held food demos to let customer know how to use Jorinji products in their daily lives.  They also participated some food events, like the Portland Fermentation Festival, where they could showcase their products to many fermentation geeks. They also began doing monthly direct sales to provide their hand-crafted Koji to the public, as well as offering support for people wanting to make miso locally. And they continued to do everything they thought necessary to make their business sustainable.

During these challenges, Earnest and Yuri got married. 

They now began to market their miso again to shops that had reduced their stock of Jorinji products, due to previous production limitations—and now began expanding to more shops in the Portland metro area in Oregon and the Seattle area in Washington. Monthly direct sales also expanded, little by little, thanks to their loyal customers’ word of mouth advertising. Due to these sales, they were able to get much needed feedback directly, and they also gained much motivation from the realization that their products were now a necessary part of their customers’ daily lives. 

Gradually as things stabilized by 2018, they renewed their logo and package design with help from their friend and package designer Ayami Ide. Also they were able to finally renew their website. Earnest & Yuri are ready to go to the next stage as they keep moving forward.

(Posted Sep.2020)