Researches on the Manufacture, Composition and 
Properties of “ Koji.” 
BY 
Dr. O. Kellner, Y. Mori, and M. Nagaoka. 
Koji i.e. steamed rice or barley upon which is developed 
the mycelium of special fungus plays an essential part in 
various manufacturing processes peculiar to Japan and China. 
It is used as a saccharifying substance in the preparation of 
rice wine (sake) and alcohol ( shochiu ) and seems likewise to 
be the chief active ingredient which brings about the slow 
fermentation as well in the manufacture of miso, a food 
adjunct very common in Japan, as in the preparation of 
shoyu , a peculiar sauce also largely consumed in the country. 
Having regard to the importance of koji iii such various 
and extensive manufacturing branches, it appeared to us 
desirable to study in detail the chemical processes and changes 
of the constituents of barley and rice caused by the develop¬ 
ment of the fungus during the preparation of koji. A few 
analyses of whitened rice and of the koji obtained therefrom 
have, it is true, already been made, but they admit only 
of conclusions about the qualitative changes of the raw 
material, and do not throw much light on the quantitative 
proportions to which these alterations may be carried by the 
fungus. In experimenting on this latter subject we prepared 
koji from rice and barley in the following way, which is 
generally adopted in the koji works, and which has already 
been described by O. Korschelt 1 and K. W. Atkinson 2 . 
1 Mittheilungen der deutschen Gesellschaft für Natur- und Völkerkunde 
Ostasiens, 1878, vol. 2, p. 240. 
a Memoirs of the Science Department, Tokyo Daigaku (University of 
Tokyo), No 6, 1881, p. 5. 
