Kōji (food)
Kōji (Japanese: 麹; rōmaji: kōji, also written as the kokuji 糀) is a filamentous fungus, most commonly Aspergillus oryzae, which are traditionally used in Japanese cuisine for the fermentation of food, or a mixture of such a culture with wheat and soybean meal. The latter can be fried and eaten directly or processed to a sauce.
The term kōji in English refers specifically to the Japanese types of starter cultures. The same Chinese character (Chinese: 麹; pinyin: qū, more commonly written as the homophonic 曲 in simplified Chinese texts) is used in Chinese to refer to Chinese starter cultures; see jiuqu.
In Japanese, the genus Aspergillus is known with the common name of kōji mold (麹黴, kōji kabi), though the term is not fully limited to the genus (for example, Monascus purpureus is called 紅麹黴 "red kōji mold").