The Original Forager: 美山荘

choi

Tom Downey, The Original Forager: Miyamasou; Long before René Redzepi popularized locavorism, it thrived at Miyamasou, a two-Michelin-star restaurant and ryokan just outside Kyoto in Japan. Wall Street Journal Magazine, Feb 14, 2015.
www.wsj.com/articles/the-original-forager-miyamasou-1423763949

Note:
(1) caption
(a) photo 2: Wild udo and tilefish soup, one of several courses served at Miyamasou.

tilefish
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tilefish
(b) photo 3: “Fusuma 襖  sliding doors divide the ryokan’s rooms.”

(2) Miyamasou  美山荘
miyamasou.jp/
("English page" in lower left corner of the home page)
(a) Miyamasou is an alternate transliteration of Miyamas.  (Both ou and ō signify a long vowel.)
(b) The kanji 美 has two Chinese pronunciation: (mostly) bi as we as mi. The "sō" is the Chinese pronunciation of 荘, which has no Japanese pronunciation.

(3) "Hisato NAKAHIGASHI 中東 久人, chef, owner and heir to Miyamasou * * * and his wife, Sachiko [中東] 佐知子,"
(a)  He is the fourth-generation owner.
(b) The "hisa," "naka" and "higashi" are all Japanese pronunciations.

(4) "Copenhagen’s Noma makes it popular for chefs to pick their own ingredients in nearby forests and glens. But long before René Redzepi championed the idea of a cuisine based on foraging, chef Nakahigashi’s father invented a culinary genre of his own: tsumikusa, meaning freshly picked."

Noma (restaurant)
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Noma_(restaurant)
(run by chef René Redzepi; "The name is a portmanteau of the two Danish words "nordisk" ([English:] Nordic) and "mad" (food). Opened in 2003")

choi

(5) Japanese English dictionary (in the order of its appearance in the ryokan 旅館 review)
* chi 知; 智 【ち】 (n): “wisdom”
* tsumikusa 摘み草 【つみくさ】 (n): “picking herbs and wildflowers”
^  摘む (v): “to pluck; to pick”  (The change to “tsumi” is akin to a verb converted to a gerund in English.)
^ The “kusa” and “sō” are Japanese and Chinese pronunciations of kanji 草.
* fukinotō 蕗の薹 【ふきのとう】 (n): “edible flower bud of the fuki (Petasites japonicus) plant, an early spring delicacy”  (Judging from the context of the WSJ review--picking from snow-covered ground--it should be “shoot,” rather than “flower bud.”)
^ fuki 蕗 (n)
^ tō 薹 (definition alone is not given; only examples, such as 薹が立つ 【とうがたつ】 (v): "to become hard and fibrous; to have passed one's prime; to have lost the first bloom of one's youth")
* fūryū 風流 【ふうりゅう】 (n): "elegance; taste; refinement"
* beni shōga 紅生姜; 紅生薑 (n): "red pickled ginger"
^ onsen tamago 温泉卵 = 半熟卵
^ hiyashi soba 冷やし麺 chilled noodle  (verb is "hiyasu")
* tsuga つが; toga とが《栂》 (n): "southern Japanese hemlock (species of conifer native to Japan, Tsuga sieboldii)"
^ Tsuga sieboldii
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tsuga_sieboldii
* umi no sachi 海の幸 【うみのさち】 (n): “(See 山の幸) seafood; products of the sea”

choi

(6) “Carefully brushing away a layer of newly fallen snow, he digs up tiny, delicate green fukinoto (butterbur sprouts).”

Petasites japonicus
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Petasites_japonicus
(native to Japan, where the spring growth is used as a vegetable)

(7) “Nakahigashi’s great-grandfather opened this ryokan more than a hundred years ago as a hostel for pilgrims on their way up the 400 steps to the Daihizan 大悲山 Bujōji temple atop this mountain. * * * I see a cook bent over a small artificial pond netting koi [Japanese pronunciation for 鯉] for our dinner.  * * * These carp are from the neighboring Shiga prefecture * * * The architecture [of the ryokan], following the classical sukiya style as executed by one of its leading 20th-century proponents, Sotoji NAKAMURA 中村 外二 [occupation: daiku 大工 carpenter], is shaped around the landscape and provides views of the adjacent stream.”
(a) Regarding Bujōji. "峰定寺（ぶじょうじ）は、京都市左京区花背原地町にある本山修験宗の寺院。山号は大悲山。本尊は千手観音。開基は観空西念である。12世紀に開創"  ja.wikipedia.org

* “12世紀に開創"

That is what the last paragraph of the WSJ review tries to say: “Before I leave for Kyoto, Nakahigashi takes me on a tour of the adjoining temple grounds, which date back to 1154.”
(b) What is 山号 sangō?  Only a Buddhist temple has a 山号 (not shintō, that is).
(i) Explanation of the Name Bachōzan Mantokuji 馬頂山 満徳寺. Mantokuji Soto Mission of Paia, undated
mantokujimauitemple.org/about-mantokuji/explanation-of-the-name-bachozan-mantokuji/
(ii) Paia, Hawaii
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paia,_Hawaii
(c) Shiga Prefecture  滋賀県
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shiga_Prefecture
(encircles Lake Biwa 琵琶湖; borders Kyoto Prefecture 京都府 in the west)
(d) sukiya 数寄屋 = 茶室. For the latter, see photos in
ja.wikipedia.org/wiki/%E8%8C%B6%E5%AE%A4

* "語源の「数寄」（数奇）とは和歌や茶の湯、生け花など風流を好むことであり" ja.wikipedia.org

translation: The origin of the terms 数寄/ 数奇 is the love for such refinements as 和歌 [classic Japanese poem], tea ceremony and flower arrangement
(For definition of 風流, see (5) above.)

choi

(8) “or dinner, we are seated at a counter in the rear of the main restaurant building. The counter—built out of slabs of toga (Japanese hemlock) and accommodating only a handful of people”

For “toga,” consult (5).

(9) “Nakahigashi explains that he has used a modern device, a Pacojet puréeing machine, to create the sweet sauce it’s [fukinoto is] tossed in.”
(a) Pacojet
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pacojet
(micro-purees deep-frozen foods into ultra-fine textures (such as mousses, sauces and sorbets) without thawing; Wilhelm Maurer, a Swiss engineer who was living in Brazil, invented the 'pacotizing' process in the early 1980s)
(b) How Pacojet works; A new spin on creative cooking. Pacojet, undated
www.pacojet.com/en/product/functions.php
("'Pacotizing' = processing frozen recipes without thawing them")

This Web page is not helpful, about how it works, and name origin. Independently I fail to find etymology of “pacotize.” But "paco" may refer to "cocaine paste" in South America, “short for pasta de cocaína cocaine paste.”
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paco_(disambiguation)

(10) “The koi is served as thin pink slices of sashimi, accompanied not by the customary wasabi, which isn’t found in this region, but by karami daikon, a spicy radish, which, mixed with soy sauce, serves as a powerful counterpoint to the sweetness of the fish.”
(a) The daikon 大根 is what Chinese call 萝卜.
(b) karami daikon 辛味大根
foodslink.jp/syokuzaihyakka/syun/vegitable/karamidaikon.htm
(辛味が強い大根の総称)

translation: The catch-all name for daikon (Wikipedia uses this name) with strong 辛味.
(c) What does  “karami daikon” taste like?

Cold Summer Noodles: Karami Daikon Beni Shoga Onsen Tamago Hiyashi Soba. Kyoto Foodie, Aug 7, 2010
kyotofoodie.com/karami-daikon-beni-shoga-onsen-tamago-hiyashi-soba/
(Marc: "I’m so curious as to what karami daikon tastes like. Is it spicy?"  Michael: "The taste of karami daikon is not so unlike the ‘hot’ radishes we used to grow in our garden in Minnesota. It seems like the ones available here in the winter had less water content and were really hot")

* For meaning of the title, see (5).

choi

(11) “A few dishes later, Nakahigashi returns with kuma 熊 nabe 鍋, a stew of bear meat garnished with fresh sprigs of a leafy vegetable called seri (water dropwort).”
(a) seri 《芹》 【せり】 (n): "Java water dropwort (Oenanthe javanica); Japanese parsley"
(b) Oenanthe javanica
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oenanthe_javanica)
(“Japanese parsley or Chinese celery (Oenanthe javanica) is a plant of the water dropwort genus originating from East Asia. (Chinese celery is also the name given to Apium graveolens var. secalinum) [both kinds of Chinese celery are in the Apiaceae family”)
(c) celery
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Celery
(in the family Apiaceae; In North America, commercial production of celery is dominated by the cultivar called 'Pascal' celery [with wide stalks])

(12) “after a few years cooking at esteemed places such as Louis XV, he felt a longing for Japan and Miyamasou. He didn’t return here directly, though: He went first to Tsurukō, in Kanazawa, a region with an ancient Japanese cuisine and culture that are similar to Kyoto’s and perhaps even better preserved.”
(a) Le Louis XV (restaurant)
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Le_Louis_XV_(restaurant)
(b) Tsurukō つる幸
turukou.com/
(“‘Kanazawa’ has been given the rich fish & vegetable from the Japanese Sea and Kaga fields 加賀 平野 [加賀国 was located around present-day 石川県]. Based on the tradition of ‘Kaga 加賀-Hyakuman 百万-goku 石,’ ‘Turukou’ has been growing along with the Kanazawa's rich food”)
(i) For 加賀百万石, see "土地の生産性を石という単位で表したもの" (translation: productivity of land is measured by 石 [the ancient Chinese measurement])
(ii) I do not know the meaning of “tsuru,” but 幸 is derived from 海の幸. See the last item in (5).
(iii) The "kō " and "sachi" are Chinese and Japanese pronunciations,--there are more in each category--of kanji 幸.
(c) Kanazawa 金沢(市)
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kanazawa
(capital city of Ishikawa Prefecture 石川県)

(13) “Ryokan food—typically kaiseki 懐石(料理)/ 会席(料理), multicourse cuisine included with the room rate—has a reputation for being elaborate, expensive and somewhat stodgy.“

(14) “As the smell of charcoal-grilled fish fills the room, ayu—sweetfish placed on metal skewers in such a way that they look as though they’re still swimming—are set down on the wooden counter. Then tiny morsels of sushi rice topped with foraged kogomi (fiddlehead ferns) arrive as a small intermediate course.”
(a) ayu
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ayu
(or sweetfish, Plecoglossus altivelis)
(b) The kogomi 【こごみ】is featherhead fern
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fiddlehead_fernKogomi
(young fern)
of Matteuccia struthiopteris.