Bamboo shoots of the moso variety, simmered and then seasoned with miso and with sake lees. The lees are the point. The lees are the local signature and are said to be unusual anywhere else in the country.

The northern limit for growing moso bamboo in Japan is given as Tsuruoka, in the south of the Shonai region. There is a stand of it around the Yudagawa hot spring, and what is cut there is known by name as Yudagawa moso. The peak of the season is the middle of May, and it is short.

The account of how the bamboo got here involves a boat. Mountain ascetics are said to have brought moso back from Kyoto on the kitamaebune and planted it at temples and shrines.

Thick fried tofu and shiitake go into the pot, and the fried tofu is what marks the Shonai version; some households add pork or dried herring as well. Yudagawa holds a moso festival from late April into early June, and the soup is served at the Sakata festival and the Tsuruoka Tenjin festival in May. The lees add body and a faint sweetness that miso alone does not give, which matters in a soup made from something as plain as a bamboo shoot. At the northern edge of where this bamboo will grow, there is a soup made with sake lees.