Venison from Culled Deer Made into Prepackaged Curry in Mie Pref. City, Creator Hopes to Inspire Young People to Hunt

The Yomiuri Shimbun

16:30 JST, January 25, 2026

OWASE, Mie —A hunter in the city of Owase, Mie Prefecture, has developed prepackaged curry using venison from culled deer.

In Owase, deer are causing rampant damage to farms. When the deer must be culled, some of the meat goes to waste, and Yushi Yamazaki, 55, has stepped forward to reduce that waste.

“Members of the local ryoyukai [hunters’ association], who cull deer, are getting old,” said Yamazaki. “I hope [this curry] will inspire young people to join our activities.”

Yamazaki, who runs an insurance agency, obtained a hunting license five years ago. When he went into the mountains with a senior hunter for the first time, he saw a deer continue to flee for tens of meters after being shot and wounded.

“I felt its will to survive as a wild animal,” he recalled.

Association members eat the deer they cull themselves. However, a deer carcass weighs about 40 kilograms, and carrying it out down from a mountain with steep slopes is tough for elderly members. Yamazaki had heard they sometimes bury dead deer in the mountains. To sell the deer meat as food, it has to be butchered in a facility with a business permit for slaughterhouse operations. But he also found out there was no such facility in Owase.

“I’d like to make the most of a life taken without leaving anything behind,” he thought. He purchased a vacant house, renovated it and obtained a permit to operate it as a meat processing facility. In 2022, he opened a game meat shop, Owase Gibier, at the facility.

“I am not a fan of the distinctive smell of venison,” Yamazaki said. Therefore, he takes time to drain the blood from the meat and carefully removes the parts that cause the smell, making the meat odorless. Even so, the belief that venison has a bad odor was deep-rooted among local residents, so the meat did not sell well for some time.

Wishing they would try the venison, Yamazaki hit on an idea to process the meat for venison curry and went through trial and error coming up with the right recipe. For the curry, he uses venison shank, which is too tough for grilling. He succeeded in making the meat tender by cooking it in a pressure cooker.

Small pieces of meat produced during the butchering process were blended in the roux for the curry. Venison accounts for a quarter of the total content of the prepackaged curry, made for people to savor the meat’s chunkiness and umami. Owase Gibier launched its sales around November last year, naming the product “Shika-niku Gorogoro Gibier Curry” (chunky venison game curry).

Yamazaki goes into the mountains to hunt once or twice a month. He also buys venison hunted by fellow members of the hunters’ association. He butchers and cuts up meat from 50 to 60 deer per year and processes their bones into pet food. The hides are now the only part that goes to waste.

Hunting incurs quite a few expenses, including the cost of bullets.

“If hunters can be rewarded by people buying deer from them, young people will find it easier to start hunting,” Yamazaki said.

A 200-gram box of prepackaged venison curry costs ¥1,500. It is available at souvenir shops and elsewhere in the city.

¥600,000 in damage annually

According to the Owase municipal government, farms in the city accrue about ¥600,000 in damage caused by deer per year. The deer population in the city is estimated at 4,000 to 5,000. At the city’s request, the Owase branch of the Mie prefectural hunters’ association culls about 400 deer every year.

About 30 years ago, there were more than 100 members in the branch. Now they have decreased to about 30 and are aging, with many of them in their 70s.