Daikon, carrot, fried tofu, sesame, lotus root, dried shiitake, konnyaku. Seven things, cut small, dressed in sanbaizu, the three-part vinegar.

Where the name comes from is disputed, and both candidates are good. One says it is simply because there are seven ingredients. The other says that narazuke, vegetables pickled in salt and in sake lees, used to be among them, and that in Tokushima narazuke was called nara-ae, or narae, so that the name of the pickle stayed on in the dish after the pickle itself had left it.

There is a claim that a dish called narae already existed among the vegetarian temple foods eaten around the time of the Taika reforms in the seventh century, which, if it is true, would make this very old indeed.

It was served at memorial services and at the spring and autumn equinox. In Mima there was a custom of putting it out at celebrations alongside miso soup, ohira, shira-ae, and a piece of fish. Now it is made as ordinary home cooking, and it appears on school lunch menus and in the kitchens of care homes. A dish that once belonged to the days when you set food out for the dead has moved quietly across onto the ordinary weekday table.