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1
The evening before service, place the dried kombu and dried shiitake in 1 litre of cold water. Cover and refrigerate overnight. Cold extraction develops a gentler, sweeter dashi; hot extraction would draw more guanylic acid from the shiitake but also more bitterness. The following morning, strain through a fine cloth, pressing the shiitake lightly. Reserve the reconstituted shiitake caps for the hassun. The dashi is ready when it is pale amber-gold, clear, and carries a mineral-oceanic depth on the nose with no rawness.
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2
Prepare the hassun arrangement. Simmer renkon in lightly salted water with a few drops of rice vinegar until just tender, 8–10 minutes; the slices should hold their shape and show their open-lattice pattern clearly. Simmer gobo batons in the same manner until yielding but not soft. Steam yurine petals over boiling water for 3–4 minutes until translucent at the edges. Blanch the greens in well-salted boiling water for 90 seconds, refresh in cold water, squeeze, and dress with rice vinegar and light soy. Brush the reserved shiitake caps with light soy and mirin; grill briefly until glazed. Arrange all five elements on a single plate or lacquered board observing the five-colour principle — white (yurine), black (shiitake), green (greens), yellow (renkon), red-brown (gobo). The arrangement is complete when the plate reads as a landscape: balanced, seasonal, with no element dominating.
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3
For the wan, bring 800 ml of strained dashi to a bare simmer. Add sake and mirin and allow the alcohol to volatilise for one minute. Season with usukuchi shoyu and salt until the broth is delicate and fully rounded — not flat, not sharp. Lower silken tofu cubes into the broth and warm through without agitation for 2 minutes; the tofu must remain intact and cloud-soft, not broken. Ladle into lacquerware bowls, float one slice of fresh ginger in each. The bowl is correct when the broth is limpid, the tofu holds its cube, and the steam carries a clean mineral sweetness with no raw soy note.
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4
For the dengaku miso glaze, combine shiro miso, mirin, sake, and sugar in a small saucepan. Stir over low heat until the sugar dissolves and the glaze thickens to a spreadable paste, 3–4 minutes; it should fall from the spoon in a slow ribbon. Press the tofu rectangles between cloth-lined weights for 20 minutes to expel moisture. Reconstitute the fu cakes in warm dashi until fully swollen and pliable — the texture must be chewy and absorbent, which is the property no other shojin ingredient replicates. Skewer or lay tofu and fu on a grill rack; spread the dengaku glaze over the upper face. Grill under a high flame or over charcoal until the miso surface blisters and caramelises at the edges — this is the step where the dish lives or dies: insufficient heat produces a pale, raw-tasting glaze; excessive heat chars the miso to bitterness. The correct finish is a deeply coloured, fragrant crust with caramel edges and a soft, warm interior.
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5
For the nimono, bring 400 ml of dashi to a simmer in a wide, shallow pan. Add soy sauce, mirin, and sugar; stir to combine. Add kabocha wedges skin-side down and konnyaku pieces. Lay a dropped lid (otoshibuta) or a cartouche directly on the ingredients to keep them submerged in the shallow liquid. Simmer gently for 15–20 minutes. The kabocha is done when a skewer passes through the flesh without resistance and the skin has deepened to jade; the broth will have reduced and lacquered the surface of each piece. The konnyaku should be firm and deeply coloured at its torn edges.
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6
Cook the rice by the absorption method: combine rinsed and soaked rice with water at a 1:1.1 ratio, bring to the boil covered, reduce to the lowest heat for 12 minutes, then remove from heat and steam, covered, for a further 10 minutes. Do not lift the lid during cooking. The rice is ready when the grains are tender, glossy, and separate cleanly, with no raw starch at the centre. Serve with the tsukemono arranged alongside.
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7
For the closing miso soup, bring 600 ml of dashi to just below a simmer. Remove from heat. Dissolve shiro miso in a ladleful of the hot dashi before stirring back into the pot — miso must never boil after incorporation or its character is lost. Add small cubes of silken tofu and warm through briefly. Taste: the soup should be full and round, the miso sweetness forward, the dashi mineral depth beneath. Ladle into bowls.
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8
For the matcha closing, heat water to 75–80 °C. Sift matcha powder into each pre-warmed bowl: 2 g per portion. Add approximately 70 ml of hot water and whisk in a rapid W-motion until the surface carries a fine, stable foam with no dry powder visible. Serve immediately alongside the seasonal wagashi, which encodes the current season in confectionery form and is eaten before the matcha. The session ends when bowl and wagashi together complete the five-colour and five-flavour principles of the sequence.