Sushi- Only in Japan

The beginning of all sushi was probably prehistoric and unique to the people of the South East Asian region. The people of the mountains, since times immemorial, had discovered the trick of preserving fish by packing it in rice. With fermentation, rice produced lactic acid that kept the fish unspoilt, in fact, a kind of picking. This technique is rooted in antiquity, being almost as old as the history of rice cultivation itself. Though sushi is a representative food in Japan today, it does not seem to be having a recorded history in the country. Rather it finds mentioned in a dictionary compiled the first time in China at the end of the second century AD, described as salted fish meat in rice, eaten fermented. In those days, the rice was discarded and only the fish seems to have been relished. By this account, sushi seems to have made its debut in China rather than in Japan. History is unclear as to when it came to Japan but the general view is that it was introduced to Japanese food only around the seventh century AD. This is when the Japanese are supposed to have started eating rice and fish together.

The Kuriosho current, the plankton rich oceanic current that surrounds Japan, is an amazing storehouse of all water delicacies. Rice is the next crop that the terraced fields of the mountainous island can be persuaded to provide by way of crop. So these are the basis of Japanese diet, rich and an unprecedented number of fish varieties. It was this abundance that the prudent and ever practical Japanese sought to preserve by adopting the art of making sushi (only in Japan can the skill of wrapping a fish in seaweed packed in salt be elevated to an art form). Actually, Sushi, the combination of raw fish, rice and salt is one of the best examples of the prudence and logic of the Japanese culture, making best use of plenty to get over needs. For an outsider to the Japanese culture, sushi may be a quaint and exotic idea but for a Japanese person, it is a supremely logical way of eating.

Originally, Japanese sushi was just cleaned, raw fish pressed between layers of salt and pressed down with a heavy stone. After a few weeks it fermented, then it was preserved for a few months without the weigh and then it was ready to eat with rice. The whole process took a few months. It was called nare-sushi and usually made with freshwater carp in the vicinity of Lake Biwa in Shiga Prefecture. The history of this sushi made with Biwa carp (and also called funa-sushi) is almost 1300 years old, and is still alive and appreciated. Its taste is not very easy on foreign palates, being so strong that the carp is almost impossible to identify.

But about five hundred years ago, it was felt that the process of this ancient sushi making form was too long and so it was modified to something called nama-nare or han-nare, which was probably the beginning of rice and fish eating tradition in Japan. In the seventeenth century, this impatience gave rise to another tradition. A doctor named Matsumoto Yoshichi who lived in Edo found that adding vinegar to the sushi would considerably reduce its preparation time and the vinegar lent certain tartness to the fish which was pleasing in taste. However, it was not instant sushi because it still had to be rolled or boxed up before it could be consumed.

With time, of course, the looks of Sushi changed and by the eighteenth century, there were two main types of Sushi, Kansai style (from Osaka) and the Edo style (Tokyo). The Kansai style was owing to the fact that Osaka was historically the commercial capital of the country and the merchant class there liked the type of sushi that had seasoned rice mixed with other ingredients and formed into decorative, edible packages. The Edo style, Nigri sushi, on the other hand, was served as a select bit of seafood on a small pad of seasoned rice. This is what foreigners know as sushi but the fact is that Kansai sushi is much older and has a much more colorful history than the Tokyo style. The Edo style is also refereed to as the Edomae-sushi and uses fish and shellfish taken from the waters of the bay on which Tokyo stands.

Early in the nineteenth century, an entrepreneur named Hanaya Yohei conceived the idea of sliced raw seafood served on small fingers of vinegar flavored rice, and it was an instant hit in a busting district of then Edo (Tokyo). Sushi had caught on, more than just as a delicacy. Over the next century sushi became a regular food in the streets of Tokyo and by the 1920s, there were quite a number of sushi stalls in the city. Obviously, sanitation levels were not very strict and the wares in these hawking stalls were displayed in the very basic manner. The vinegar-ed rice the man would get from home while the bowl of soy sauce, the bowl of pickled ginger and his seafood wares were displayed on ice. Nigiri sushi, which was no more than a snack back then, was a regular street food for the men out on business or leisure. Hygiene and class were things not to be considered at all.

The change of status of sushi from a street food to a delicacy sold from an elegant shop began after the great Kanto earthquake of 1923. Once the stalls vanished, similar structures or facilities could not be just set up, so new shops came up, with seating arrangements, albeit open to the street. The World War II, these small shops also vanished forever from the streets, and were most probably moved indoors to provide for the chef’s work quarters, because sushi consumption did not fall, only the business style had changed. Now the customers could comfortably eat indoors while the chef could cook in peace, but some traditions stuck on. Like, there were still communal bowls of soy sauce that everybody dipped into and the Chef SAT and cooked while the customers STOOD and ate. By the 1960s, even the tradition of eating standing up faded and seated ease came in its place.

Today the art and science of Sushi occupies a place of pride in most Japanese cuisine restaurants in Japan and abroad, though it is still, largely an acquired taste.