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Food → Japanese food → Japanese traditional food → Sushi → The history of sushi
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Sushi is one of the worldwide most popular food. This dish was invented in the
ancient times. In their folklore, Japanese wives in ancient times used to keep their rice pots in
an eyrie because they were afraid their rice would be stolen. Until when they gathered the
pots and discovered that the rice had started to fermentand mixed with the scraps of fish that
the osprey ate. Surprisingly, the rice tasted delicious, so they served this kind of rice
continuously.
Beside the folklore, there is another version of the origins of sushi. It is said that
originally, sushi was from China and this dish appeared in the end of 2nd century. There was
a dish named narezushi which means aged sushi. Narezushi was made from a combination of
fermented rice and preserved fish, but the rice was not to eat, they usually threw away the
rice because it’s only used to encourage fermentation. A 4th century Chinese dictionary also
mentioned about a fermentation that happened when salted fish is being placed in cooked
rice. It become a prove in print of the first time sushi being invented. The acid that produced
by the fermented rice could slow the growth of bacterial in fish when it’s combined with salt.
This process often referred as pickling, which is the reason why the kitchen to make sushi is
called tsuke-ba that means pickling place.
In the Muromachi period, Japanese people preferred eating fish with rice. They
slightly wrapped fresh raw fish in rice, and they consumed it before the flavor changed. This
method called namanari or namanare, which means semi fermented. This method of eating
sushi was popular in the period.
More than 1000 years ago, Japanese people used to caught golden carp or also known
as funa by them in Biwa Lake. They made funazushi from this fish, which was the earliest
form of narezushi. The golden carp is packed in salted rice, and stored under weights to make
the fermentation process faster. However, the process needed at least a year to complete, and
this dish only available for wealthy people from the upper class in Japan.
The 8th century is the time of the beginning of sushi to spread from China to Japan.
From time to time sushi went through quite a lot changes and modifications. Japanese people
started to boil their rice and adding vinegar for a quicker fermentation process. Until in the
1900s, sushi makers in Edo developed a new method of fermentation, they put a layer of
cooked rice that has been seasoned with vinegar alongside a layer of fish. They compressed
this layers in a wooden box for around two hours. This method certainly reduced time in
preparing the sushi, and by now, the process has gotten even faster.
In the Edo period, Japanese people had developed nigiri sushi. The Japanese people
served this dish with putting a layer of fish on the top of cooked rice that has been seasoned
with vinegar. In this period, a man named Hanaya Yohei is known as the founder of the
modern nigiri sushi, because he was the first person who sold this kind of sushi that is still
popular amongst people all around the world until today.
Beside the popular nigiri sushi, Japanese people in Edo period also developed
hayazushi or fast sushi. It was the first time Japanese people didn’t throw away the rice, but
consumed it along with the fish. They mixed rice with vinegar then combined it with fish,
vegetables, and some kinds of dried food. This type of sushi is also still popular nowadays.
In this modern day, sushi has been through evolution and believed would still be
evolving, because now people has a lot more kind of ingredients that can be used to make
sushi from time to time. Eventhough the kind of sushi that is rolled and wrapped with
seaweed then sliced thin seems to be a lot more popular nowadays, a lot kind of the
traditional sushi still being served in sushi restaurants all around the world and still has it’s
own enthusiasts.
