Tony Flenley, Miso Man

By Stephen Carr

Now the manager of a miso company in Osaka, Tony Flenley was once well acquainted with blackboards and boredom. Finishing university in Swansea, South Wales in 1977, Flenley opted for English teaching and chose Japan over Spain as his first work location. Settling here, like many before and to come, he found solace away from grammar drills and chalk dust by marrying a local girl.

He was contemplating a university teaching job when his father-in-law, approaching retirement from a well-established miso company he'd been running since the war, asked if he might be interested in taking over. Flenley was delighted to bin the teaching and try something new. Working from the bottom up, he learnt the intricate process of turning soy into miso, eventually becoming Product Manager of the Osaka Miso Jyozo company.

There are three types of miso. One is made from only soybean, another from rice and bean, and the third from barley and bean. Miso is made in almost every region of Japan, using Chinese and Japanese techniques passed down over hundreds of years. The powerful enzymes produced by mould and fermentation make for a healthy, nutritious and delicious soup stock. Miso lowers cholesterol and is said to prevent cancer.

Miso making is traditionally a family business and has been, until recent years, exclusively a craft-based one. However, commercial pressures are challenging the traditional methods. Price competition particularly, fuelled by the growth of Japanese supermarkets, is forcing the product more quickly to market. This can be achieved by speeding the fermentation process using temperature controlled vats.

Flenley has no truck with these new fangled methods and refuses to interrupt the natural fermentation process of his miso. "That way we maintain the high quality and taste needed to maintain our niche in the market."

He seems a man happy in his work. Chance or fate led him to fall in love with a miso maker's daughter. The other factors allowing him to junk English teaching are, of course, open to anyone - learning Japanese, making local friends and enjoying the indigenous culture.

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