If there ever was a Kochi Everyman, a likely candidate would be the eggplant (aubergine) or nasu farmer. His quiet heroism seen in his daily toil amongst his crops. The planting and the harvest - all evocative of the epic struggle that is human life. Well, perhaps not. But the nasu farmer is indeed an important figure in Kochi - if not in its mythos then at least in its economy and cuisine.

In 1998, Japan’s total GDP was 498,016,898 billion yen, with farming contributing 9,868,000 billion. Kochi's share of the farming total was 122,500 billion yen, and of that nasu farming had contributed 25.8 percent. It is no surprise then that in the landscapes of greenhouses and fields, nasu remains a prominent fixture in Kochi agriculture. Everywhere you go you can taste it: pickled in school lunches, fried at office enkais, topping pastas in Italian restaurants, even appearing as a quirky ice cream flavor in specialty shops.