Konnyaku is cut into thin strips and blanched. It simmers down with carrot in seasoned liquid. Separately, drained tofu and white sesame are ground together into a dressing, and the two are folded into each other.

Shiraae is made all over Japan. What marks the Gunma version is that the thing being dressed is konnyaku.

The konnyaku potato reached this prefecture in the Muromachi period, and growers have been working on it and expanding the crop ever since. It dislikes extreme cold and strong sunlight, and it wants free-draining soil and a mild climate, and Shimonita happens to offer precisely that combination. The town is better known for its leeks, but this is what its fields also carry. A place that grows a great deal of something ends up with a great many dishes that use it.

The dish is served as Buddhist vegetarian food and at ceremonies of every kind, which raises a practical question: how do you tell a wedding dish from a funeral dish when both are white? The answer is the carrot. For celebrations it goes in and adds red. For memorial services it is left out. That single vegetable is doing the work that a change of dish would do elsewhere. The same bowl, sorted by color.