Photo/Illutration Tsutomu Murashima shares tips on cooking rice while checking the heat level during a rice-cooking event in Harbin, China, on Oct. 11. (Yoshikazu Hirai)

HARBIN, China--Tsutomu Murashima is a household name in China, as well as Japan. His specialty is cooking rice to perfection, and it seems, no one else does it quite as well as he does.

Hence his monicker, the “rice-cooking wizard.”

Murashima, now 89 years old, has been cooking rice all his adult life, and the secret to his art lies in his special touch.

His reputation is such that even China has invited Murashima time and again to show off his skills.

He recently gave a demonstration here in Heilongjiang province, northeastern China.

The province is the country's No. 1 rice production area and has a deeply rooted history with Japan through the wartime immigration of Japanese to areas in and around Manchuria for farming as well as a postwar relationship centered on rice planting.

Murashima, his eyes gleaming as his Chinese audience mouthed down rice balls he had made, said, "Connecting heart to heart is important for friendship.”

INVITES FROM CHINA

Murashima has become a much beloved figure in China.

Chinese tourists who visited the Ginshari-ya Gekotei eatery that he founded in 1963 in Sakai, Osaka Prefecture, kept referring to their memories of his tasty rice once they got home.

That led to an invitation by the Chinese government in 2016 for Murashima to demonstrate his kitchen skills. He spent six months in China learning how to cook rice produce in China his way.

After that, he was frequently invited to China to show off his rice-cooking technique.

During the Oct. 11 demonstration here, Murashima cooked 70 or so servings of locally produced rice in a large pot he brought from Japan for the event.

He took extra care to control the water temperature and volume, and the event was aired live on the Internet. Audience members peppered him with questions online for tips on making the tastiest rice.

Other factors in the ties that bind Heilongjiang province and Japan concerns the number of war-displaced children left behind in China after the end of World War II, many of whom eventually returned to Japan, along with technical training programs for planting rice by Japanese farmers.

During the rice festival, Murashima expressed deep appreciation for the quality of Chinese rice, saying it is very similar to Japanese grain.

‘TERRIBLE WAR’

Murashima's pursuit of happiness by eating rice reflects his wartime experience of working for the military and struggling to fill his empty stomach. He recalled he often resorted to eating potato vines to stave off hunger pains.

In those days, Murashima regarded himself as a very militaristic, but later came to realize, “We did terrible things in war. We caused a lot of trouble to China."

It was this thought that triggered his decision to contribute to the two nations’ friendship through cooking rice.

A Chinese man in his 70s who sampled Murashima's onigiri rice balls at the festival said: “I really respect his way of life, earnestly focusing on one thing. I want to tell Chinese kids that there is such a great person in Japan.”

Murashima said with a smile: “I think I was able to connect my heart with others. I feel like this province is my second home town.”