Ichikanjin / Silky smooth soy-milk ramen with fresh local vegetables on the side

By Futoshi Mori

16:42 JST, December 19, 2020

Ichikanjin in Kamakura, Kanagawa Prefecture is a one of a kind ramen shop that is sure to leave a lasting impression. Its two signature dishes are a soy-milk based ramen dish, and a spicy tsukemen (dipping-style ramen) that uses homegrown green chilies and habaneros. Customers are also offered a reasonably priced salad made from fresh local vegetables to accompany their ramen.

Kamakura is an ancient capital that is almost completely surrounded by mountains except for in the south where it faces the sea. This natural fortress became the political center of Japan for about 150 years after the establishment of the Kamakura Shogunate in late 12th century. Kamakura’s appeal, however, doesn’t just lie in its history. Its scenic beauty has made it not only an ideal tourist spot, but a great place to set up a vacation home, with many literary figures going so far as to settle in the area. Kamakura’s popularity among tourists continues to this day, with its coast being crowded with people enjoying activities such as yachting and surfing.

Ichikanjin is a roughly 15-minute walk from Kamakura Station. Or for those who’d like to enjoy a smaller train ride, you can board the Enoshima Dentetsu at Kamakura Station to reach Wadazuka Station. The small station which is only one stop from Kamakura station is closest to Ichikanjin. Walking around streets in Kamakura, you’ll notice the most restaurants and shops in the area have a sophisticated and elegant atmosphere. The same can of course be said for Ichikanjin. At first glance, it’d be hard to guess that it is a ramen shop, as it looks more like a cafe or a boutique.

“My wife, a Kamakura native, made [our shop] stylish to appeal to our female customers,” said owner Shingo Umezawa, 52. I stepped inside and saw that the interior was based around white colour and that there was both a counter and two tables available, which could accommodate as many as 15 people.

I placed my order and decided to give the famous salad a try.

“Every morning, I shop at a market where the Kamakura farmers gather, and buy only the freshest locally grown vegetables. Because of that, the salad’s ingredients can vary from time to time,” Umezawa said, arranging some vegetables on a rather large plate. More than ten vegetable varieties, including turnips, dried persimmons, potatoes with honey mustard, daikon, red Chinese cabbage and watercress, were topped with hard-boiled eggs and a homemade Italian dressing based on Bagna Cauda. All of this for just ¥500 with a smaller serving size available for ¥280. What a bargain!

I could tell with each bite of the vegetables I took that they were fresh.

“Initially, I only used the vegetables as toppings for the ramen,” he said. “I didn’t think that salads would sell well. But I had an abundance of vegetables, I started to offer the salads at ¥150 for a small and ¥300 for a big as a sort of service for the customers. They’ve really taken off now.”

Because the salads have increased in popularity, there are those who would like to only order them as a meal. However, because Ichikanjin is a ramen shop, Umezawa asks that customers order the salad in addition to a ramen dish. At any rate, the salads he serves are gorgeous and are sure to leave you satisfied.

Creamy soy-milk ramen

Once I’d finished the salad, I ordered a bowl of the shop’s soy-milk ramen (¥800). Umezawa explained the process of making the broth and I have to admit it’s quite complicated. First, he begins with a number of ingredients which can include a whole chicken, chicken wings, pork, pork ribs, pork back fat, etc. These ingredients are boiled, creating a thick and rich broth. The broth is removed, water is added to the ingredients left behind and the process begins again, creating a broth with a lighter flavor than the one before it. This is done a total of four times. One single broth is then created using a portion of varying size from each of the four broths. From there, scallops and a vegetable broth are added, followed by soy milk, a salt-based sauce and okayu (Japanese rice porridge) broth. Finally, his own personal blend of spices, including ground sesame, shichimi spice, kombu powder and black pepper, is added.

Umezawa began his rammen shop with no formal training, having learned to make ramen from a ramen shop owner who was a friend of his father. The flavor of his dishes are the direct result of his own research, which continues to this day. Even dishes he’s been making for years have a different flavor than they did in the past.

The soy-milk ramen was served with raw vegetables, chopped fried shallots and homemade chashu roast pork. The broth was filled to the brim with flavor, a nice blend of the mildness of the soy milk and the robust flavor of the original broth. It warmed me inside and out. The noodles, specially ordered from a noodle maker, were thin with a moist texture and paired well with the broth. It was delicious. One of the toppings, an edible mushroom called wood ear or kikurage as it’s known in Japan, is well known for its chunky texture, but Umezawa says that many foreigners tend to pick it off.

Hot and spicy tsukemen

“I make my hot and spicy sauce from green chili peppers and habaneros picked in the fields of my parent’s home in Hachioji, Tokyo. We had a good harvest this year,” Umezawa said. Even though I was pretty full from the last dish, as a lover of hot and spicy food, I really wanted to taste the shop’s spicy tsukemen. So, I ordered a bowl topped with tontoro special chashu roast pork (¥1,280).

The tsukemen features flat thick noodles, which are surprisingly sprinkled with a habanero and yuzu-based sauce. I would have thought that it would have been added to the broth, which instead is a mixture of the shop’s signature basic broth, a soy sauce-based sauce and a ponzu and green chili-based sauce. The dish was placed before me and I could see red specks from the habanero sauce on the noodles. After tasting a bit of the broth, I took a bite of the noodles on their own. The kick from the habanero went right to my brain. It was so spicy that the inside of my mouth began to hurt. Even so, the flavor was refreshing and it was a pleasant experience overall. I was surprised myself that I could eat more and more noodles. In the latter half of the meal, I squeezed some lime over the noodles, which enhanced the freshness and spiciness.

The slices of tontoro chashu pork, which is a limited item on the menu, tastes very nice as well. This is a popular brand pork called Imobuta and Umezawa advised me to keep them in the tsukemen soup for a while before eating them. I ate them that way and enjoyed tender and juicy meat.

Ichikanjin is written with the kanji that can be translated as “a person with plenty of time.” It is normally pronounced Ikkanjin which is a design of the bowls with a small man on the edge. It is said a man with plenty of time peering into a well.

“The year before I opened my first shop, I was a man with plenty of leisure time. All I did was research different ramen dishes,” Umezawa said.

Umezawa opened and ran a ramen shop near his parent’s home in Hachioji for six years before opening Ichikanjin in Kamakura nearly twelve years ago. Because his signature ramen has attracted so many loyal customers, it’s safe to say that he no longer has any leisure time.

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