Visit to Ark Inazuma Farm, a ‘natural’ farm with Japanese vegetables
2026/9/23
On Wednesday 23rd September, Cultural Consul Masataka Abe and Consulate Chef Manabu Kida visited Ark Inazuma Farm near Haddington at the invitation of the farm's management.
Farm owner Masami Tsuji—carrying on the legacy of her late mother, Keiko Tsuji— works alongside Eiko Yamashita to cultivate Japanese vegetables using ‘natural farming’ methods from Japan.
During the visit, they toured the expansive and largely organic-certified farmland, and inspected the cultivation of various Japanese vegetables. These included aromatic herbs grown in greenhouses, such as shiso (perilla), mitsuba (Japanese wild parsley) and sansho (Japanese pepper) as well as crops like negi (Japanese spring onion), shungiku (garland chrysanthemum), and legumes, which also serve as companion plants in the natural farming system.
Although this initiative has only just begun, there are high hopes that it will foster new exchanges between Japan and Scotland through the cultivation of vegetables.
Farm owner Masami Tsuji—carrying on the legacy of her late mother, Keiko Tsuji— works alongside Eiko Yamashita to cultivate Japanese vegetables using ‘natural farming’ methods from Japan.
During the visit, they toured the expansive and largely organic-certified farmland, and inspected the cultivation of various Japanese vegetables. These included aromatic herbs grown in greenhouses, such as shiso (perilla), mitsuba (Japanese wild parsley) and sansho (Japanese pepper) as well as crops like negi (Japanese spring onion), shungiku (garland chrysanthemum), and legumes, which also serve as companion plants in the natural farming system.
Although this initiative has only just begun, there are high hopes that it will foster new exchanges between Japan and Scotland through the cultivation of vegetables.
