Meat – Why do the Japanese eat a lot of raw fish

japanese-cuisinerawraw-meat

Was trying to answer this question for a school age child writing an essay about Japan. Short of Wikipedia's "hundreds of years ago, you arranged for fresher fish by transporting it live" nothing meaningful popped up in my searches – and that doesn't offer explanation because of course you can cook fish after you transport it live.

So, is there some reason why eating raw fish became so popular/prevalent in Japan's seaward areas specifically (compared to other sea-adjacent areas of other nations)? Was it some specific quality of fish native to Japanese sea waters? Or just an accident of culture?

Best Answer

I did a little bit of digging on the topic and found this TapTrip blog post: A brief history of Sushi: why do japanese eat raw fish?

It also references a Cultura Bunka article in Portuguese called Uma breve história do sushi.

To quote:

During Muromachi Period (1336-1573), japaneses [sic] used to transport the raw fish inside of baked rice to keep it conserved during long trips. Then, they started to eat this meal which was called sushi.

[...]

But, making sushi was hard because took a long time and was a little expensive. Only during Edo Period (1603-1868) japaneses started to eat the raw fish freshly caught from the ocean with rice thanks to a sushiman called Hanaya Yohei.

So it appears the short answer is indeed "just an accident of culture" (or history) so-to-speak.

I will also quote from a short article Japanese Food Culture of Eating Raw Fish *

Raw fish dishses have been eaten since the Nara-era. At first, people ate raw fish pickled with vinegar as "Namasu". Then, from the Muromachi-era, people started to eat "Sashimi".

And a bonus small bit on careful preparation of Sashimi:

Sashimi is the main dish in the Japanese cuisine, and the cooks consider carefully the best way of cutting the fish, arranging the fish, shellfish and squid, give importance to the proper use of condiments, and the best combination of fish species when serving. The thickness of sashimi is determined according to the collagen (main protein in the connective tissue) content of the fish used.

* [Foods Food Ingredients J. Jpn., Vol. 212, No.8, 20]
Keiko Hatae
Wayo Women's University
2-3-1, Kohnodai, Ichikawa-shi, Chiba 272-8533, Japan

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