Rice dishes ── Donburi (rice bowls)
Kaisendon
Seafood rice bowl
A rice bowl topped with an assortment of raw seafood. Thought to have spread nationwide after the war as refrigeration and transport improved, it has no single fixed form: shops differ over plain versus vinegared rice. Its origin is unsettled — one account points to diners in Hokkaido's Hakodate and Kushiro, another to Edo-style chirashi-zushi — with no single birthplace agreed upon.
What it's made of
Sashimi-grade seafood bought that day is arranged over plain or vinegared rice, colorful and varied. Which fish go together, and how, is left to the shop or the region — unlike sushi, the dish has no single fixed form. The color and arrangement of the bowl itself mirrors whatever came in that day, and no two bowls quite look the same as the season or the catch shifts.
How it's made
The preparation is simple: cut the day's seafood and lay it over a bowl of rice. It is thought to have spread nationwide after the war as refrigeration and transport improved, and whether the rice is vinegared or plain still splits by shop and region. The closer the source, the more that freshness shows directly in the flavor, and even the order and amount of toppings carries a shop's own signature.
Why it took this shape
Why it became a nationwide favorite isn't settled — one account credits postwar cold-chain logistics, another traces it to Edo-style chirashizushi. Where it becomes a true local specialty is in market towns, where fish landed that morning can be bought and bowled on the spot: Kushiro's kattedon lets diners build their own bowl straight from the stalls, and the markets of Otaru and Hakodate are thought to work on the same footing, buying and eating in one place.
Before you go
- How to use a convenience storeA quick guide to choosing rice balls and hot snacks, buying coffee, paying by cash, IC card, or tap payment, using the eat-in corner, and sorting your trash — the basics for a first visit.
- Station food and ekiben (station bento)Where and when to find ekiben (station bento) before it sells out, etiquette for eating on board, how standing soba and udon stalls work, and where to find souvenirs sold inside the station.
- Roadside stations, direct-sale stands, and marketsHow to enjoy buying food near where it's produced, visiting and shopping at morning markets and fish markets, what to expect at farm stands, and finding local food at roadside stations (michi-no-eki).
Dishes in the same style
- Aburafu DonDeep-fried wheat gluten, shaped into a log, is simmered in a sweet-savory broth and set with egg over rice, katsudon-style — a Tome City bowl said to trace to a tofu shop's shelf-stable gluten product, later turned into a bowl dish by a local innkeeper.
- Aizu Sōsu KatsudonAizu's sauce katsudon, doused in a thick sweet-savory sauce. Its origin has several competing accounts, none settled, but all point to it being refined through everyday improvisation on Taisho-era Western food.
Ingredients and dishes from this land
Known for it here
- Known for it here: Hokkaido, Kushiro
At Kushiro's Washo Market, diners build their own bowl (kattedon) by picking seafood from the stalls and adding it to rice bought separately — a custom rooted in a market that sells fish landed close by.
- Known for it here: Hokkaido, Otaru
At Otaru's Sankaku Market, steps from the station, shoppers buy seafood straight from the fishmongers' stalls and have it prepared on the spot into a custom rice bowl — buying and eating happen in the same market.
- Known for it here: Hokkaido, Hakodate
Hakodate's morning market grew up beside the station and port just after the war, and it is home to seafood-bowl restaurants such as Kikuyo Shokudo, founded in 1956, serving fish landed close to where it is sold.
- Known for it here: Ishikawa, Kanazawa
Kanazawa's Omicho Market sits close to the city's central wholesale market, and some of its seafood-bowl shops send staff to the morning auction themselves each day — a short supply line from landing to bowl.
Contrast
- Edomae-zushiNigiri born at Edo's street stalls in the 1820s. Curing tricks for keeping fish — soy-marinated tuna, vinegared kohada, simmered anago under sweet glaze — became the craft itself, called shigoto.
- Chirashi-zushiSushi rice with ingredients either scattered on top or mixed straight through. Kanto style arranges raw fish over the rice; Kansai style mixes diced ingredients in, then finishes with shredded egg and other garnish.
- Katte-donRice bought first, then topped with sashimi hand-picked stall by stall around the market. Said to have originated at Kushiro's Washo Market, a way of eating rooted in sitting close to where the fish is landed.