Part 2

By Noriko Takiguchi

Have you been to Pink Godzilla in Santa Cruz ? They have surprising variety of rolled sushi, many of which are new to me. The restaurant is very innovative in the combination of different fish and vegetables.

In fact, rolled sushi is largely an invention of the US, especially the kind like avocado rolls, hot spicy tuna rolls, and many more complicated-named rolls, and has now been imported back to Japan as a hot trend. This is adding another page in the long history of sushi eating.

The history of sushi goes back as long as to B.C.400 in South East Asia, where people used uncooked rice to marinate raw fish for preservation purposes. Fish was sprinkled with salt and buried in rice. Rice’s fermentation helped fish last long, and provided a rare source of protein at that time. Only fish was served and rice was thrown away.

When this kind of preserved fish came north to Japan around 8th century, people started eating both the fish and the rice. The rice was soft and slightly sour due to the fermentation. This sourness was later replaced by just adding vinegar to cooked rice, when people in Edo era (17th century to mid 19th century) wanted to eat sushi quickly without waiting the fermentation time. But this was not yet the sushi as we know it. The vinegar rice was served not only with fish but also with some vegetables and cooked dried food. We still see developed versions of this kind in many parts of Japan.

The sushi of today -- a small ball of rice and a slice of raw fish on top with wasabi (the spicy green paste) in between -- is actually called ‘Edo sushi’ because it was strictly invented there in Edo (now Tokyo). The Edo era gave birth to many avant-garde cultures and free-wheeling ways of life. A man named Yohei Hanaya is said to have started this particular sushi style as fast food in 1822 or 1823.

Edo sushi consisted of five important elements: vinegar, sashimi (raw fish), wasabi, nori (sea weed) and soy sauce. Soy sauce became available in large quantities only in the Edo era, and people found how delicious it was to eat sashimi with soy sauce. Wasabi also began to be grown around the region in Edo era. And fish was abundant in Tokyo Bay. Yohei put all these elements together to make one-bite snack which was served at a stand. It became quickly popular and many more sushi stands were seen along many streets in Edo.

Edo sushi is said to then have spread all over Japan after Great Kanto Earthquake in 1923 (Taisho Era), which left 143 thousand people dead or missing in the greater Tokyo region. Large number of sushi chefs fled devastated Tokyo to other parts of the country in order to survive. Later, sushi spread all over the world, thanks to curious gourmets everywhere.

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