Hiroshima-Style Okonomiyaki: From Adversity to Beloved Staple

If you’ve got some measure of experience with Japanese cuisine, you might have heard of okonomiyaki. This savory pancake is a staple comfort food. However, okonomiyaki– “as you like it” yaki– has more than just one variety. Hiroshima, Kansai, and other regional variations abound of this adaptable dish. Let’s get to know the unique Hiroshima style of this much beloved savory pancake.

A Chance Encounter with a Beloved Local Staple

Many years ago, as a study-abroad student in Japan, I arrived in Hiroshima after many hours aboard the train from Kyoto.

I’d stopped over for sightseeing in Himeji and then continued on through Hiroshima City to Itsukushima Shrine. While there, I miscalculated the timing of the tide, and ruined my shoes in the rising tide as I hurried back past the iconic floating torii after the shrine– and a more dry path– had closed. In short, I was soggy and exhausted by the time I took the ferry and the train back and arrived in downtown Hiroshima.

I was eager to find something good in the pre-made items of local cuisine in the convenience store down the street from my hotel. So, as I sat working a hairdryer over my waterlogged shoes, I had my first taste of Hiroshima-style okonomiyaki. While I’d had Osaka-style okonomiyaki before, Hiroshima’s variation was a new and delightful variation on the dish.

What I didn’t know was how it began.

Risen from the Ashes

Some attribute Hiroshima-style okonomiyaki’s to the tea master Sen no Rikyū (1522-1591) in the Azuchi-Momoyama period. One of the foods he served with tea was a type of fried wheat gluten.

But okonomiyaki’s direct roots, whatever the regional variety, are in prewar, working class cuisine. A cheap fried food sold in yatai stalls and dagashi shops was called issen yōshoku (one sen western food). It was made of wheat batter, green onion, and bonito flakes, cooked into a pancake. It was the generation of Hiroshima residents that grew up with this cuisine that would go on, after the war, to pioneer a new culinary form amid great adversity.

After the war’s end, Hiroshima had to contend with the aftermath of both food shortages and a city devastated by atomic bombing. Relying on the model of the issen yōshoku, but using whatever was at hand, the result was modern okonomiyaki in its early form. As the economy and food security improved, the range of ingredients broadened, giving us the dish we know today.

An Era of Invention from Necessity

Another thing that influenced the development of modern, postwar okonomiyaki was American-made flour.

The US sent food aid in the form of flour to postwar Japan, despite flour being far less of a staple in Japanese cuisine. Enterprising chefs in Japan tried to make the most of using and adapting it to more familiar forms.

The Hiroshima chefs who developed modern okonomiyaki were not the only ones. Making use of the Occupation-era flour shipments was also an impetus behind Andō Momofuku’s invention of instant noodles. Beyond wheat, this is also the period that saw a chef in Sendai reach an agreement with the US military bases in Miyagi Prefecture to buy unused beef tongue. He turned it into gyūtan, which has since become a point of pride in Miyagi’s cuisine.

Hiroshima-style okonomiyaki is thus in good company, as a food that was born out of postwar necessity.

Unique Attributes

Despite its adaptability, there are some common attributes to doing okonomiyaki in the Hiroshima style. One notable difference is that Hiroshima style is layered where Osaka style mixes its batter and ingredients. As noted Japanese cooking YouTube channel Cooking with Dog observes, the batter is more crepe-like than other okonomiyaki varieties.

Another difference is in the inclusion of noodles. Generally, these are yakisoba noodles, which form whatever layer it’s placed on, but you can substitute them for another type of noodles as needs and tastes dictate. It was the noodles that most surprised me, that long-ago night in Hiroshima when I had my first taste of the local okonomiyaki. It fills out the stack of layers nicely, and adds variety to the texture.

Conclusion

Hiroshima-style okonomiyaki has a relatively recent history, albeit one borne of difficult circumstances in a city that was especially ravaged by the Second World War. But in a short time, it’s become a fixture not just of regional cuisine but one of the most beloved items of Japanese cuisine overall.

Time, and age, have made it such that I cannot partake of okonomiyaki anymore, due to its wheat flour, but if you’re able and the opportunity presents itself, please give it a try. Savor the hearty hometown flavor that made something new and good out of loss and adversity.

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