page_title: Udon
section_title: Origin
hierarchical_section_title: Udon / Origin
caption_attribution_description: 日本語: うどんの製造風景。 English: Making of Japanese thick noodle Udon with the rolling pin, at Ube, Yamaguchi, JAPAN.
context_page_description: Udon is a type of thick, wheat-flour noodle used frequently in Japanese cuisine. It is often served hot as a noodle soup in its simplest form, as kake udon, in a mildly flavoured broth called kakejiru, which is made of dashi, soy sauce, and mirin. It is usually topped with thinly chopped scallions. Other common toppings include tempura, often prawn or kakiage, or aburaage, a type of deep-fried tofu pockets seasoned with sugar, mirin, and soy sauce. A thin slice of kamaboko, a halfmoon-shaped fish cake, is often added. Shichimi can be added to taste.
  The flavour of broth and topping vary from region to region. Usually, dark brown broth, made from dark soy sauce, is used in eastern Japan, and light brown broth, made from light soy sauce, is used in western Japan. This is noticeable in packaged instant noodles, which are often sold in two different versions for east and west. Currynanban is another popular variation, served in curry broth.
context_section_description: There are many stories explaining the origin of udon.
  One story says that in AD 1241, Enni, a Rinzai monk, introduced flour milling technology from Song China to Japan. Floured crops were then made into noodles such as udon, soba, and pancakes in Japan which were eaten by locals. Milling techniques were spread around the country.
  Another story states that during the Nara period, a Japanese envoy was introduced to 14 kinds of confection while being in China during the Tang Dynasty. One of them was called sakubei (索餅), which was listed as muginawa (牟義縄) in Shinsen Jikyō (新撰字鏡), a dictionary which was published in the Heian Era. The muginawa is believed to be an origin for many kinds of Japanese noodles. However, the muginawa in Shinsen Jikyō was made with wheat and rice flour.
  Another story for udon claims that the original name of the noodle was konton, which was made with wheat flour and sweet fillings.
  Yet another story says that a Buddhist priest called Kukai introduced udon noodles to Shikoku during the Heian Era. Kūkai, the Buddhist priest, traveled to Tang China around the beginning of the 9th century to study. Sanuki Province claimed to have been the first to adopt udon noodles from Kūkai. Hakata claimed to have produced udon noodles based on Enni's recipe.
caption: A chef rolling up the dough to make Udon
exif: {"Image Orientation": "Horizontal (normal)", "Image XResolution": "72", "Image YResolution": "72", "Image ResolutionUnit": "Pixels/Inch", "Image Software": "Adobe Photoshop 7.0", "Image DateTime": "2010:03:14 16:20:08", "Image ExifOffset": "156", "Thumbnail Compression": "JPEG (old-style)", "Thumbnail XResolution": "72", "Thumbnail YResolution": "72", "Thumbnail ResolutionUnit": "Pixels/Inch", "Thumbnail JPEGInterchangeFormat": "294", "Thumbnail JPEGInterchangeFormatLength": "2886", "EXIF ColorSpace": "Uncalibrated", "EXIF ExifImageWidth": "991", "EXIF ExifImageLength": "662"}