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1
Drain the soaked rice. Place it in a heavy-based pot with the kombu and the cold water or brewed tea. The rice and liquid must be cold at the start — this is not a technique that tolerates shortcuts. Bring the pot slowly to a bare simmer over medium-low heat. When the first wisps of steam rise and small bubbles break at the surface, the temperature is correct.
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2
Remove the kombu just before the liquid reaches a simmer — it will have begun to release its minerals and silkiness into the water. Discard or reserve for another use. Continue at a gentle, unwavering simmer: a bubble every two to three seconds at the centre, never a rolling boil. Cover with the lid set slightly ajar. This is where the dish lives or dies — high heat breaks starch cells and produces a gluey, adhesive result rather than the velvety, grain-intact porridge that defines okayu. Maintain the simmer patiently for 40 to 50 minutes.
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3
After 40 minutes, lift the lid. The grains should be swollen, tender, and just holding their shape — not dissolved, not chalky at the centre. Draw a wooden spoon through the porridge: it should flow slowly back into itself, leaving a brief trail. This is the texture of nanshoku, the soft-diet standard. If the porridge is thinner than desired, continue uncovered for a further five to ten minutes; if too thick, add a small measure of hot water and stir once.
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4
Season with the minimum of fine salt — the porridge should taste clean and gently sweet from the rice starch, with a quiet mineral depth from the kombu. It should not taste seasoned. Taste once; adjust once. If preparing miso-gayu, remove the pot from the heat, dissolve the white miso in a small ladleful of the hot porridge, and stir it back through. The smell at this point should be warm, faintly toasty, and without sharpness.
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5
For egg okayu only: remove the pot from the heat entirely. Pour the beaten eggs in a slow, thin stream around the surface of the porridge while stirring in slow, wide circles. The residual heat will set the egg into fine, silky strands within 30 seconds. The bowl should show pale, custard-coloured threads, not pale scrambled curds — the distinction is in the heat and the motion.
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6
Ladle into warmed bowls. Place one umeboshi at the centre of each portion at the moment of service — never added during cooking, where its acidity would break down the porridge structure. Any additional topping must be minimal: a single element, placed quietly. The bowl should smell of clean warmth and nothing else.