Seafood ── Fish
Anko
monkfish — a winter fish famously hung and carved for its liver
A winter deep-sea fish, traditionally carved by hanging it whole. Prized for its liver, ankimo, and for hot pot — ports facing where the Kuroshio and Oyashio currents meet land the most, and built the fish into a hot-pot tradition.
- Other styles
What it's made of
A fish that fattens up in deep winter waters, said to be rich in vitamin A and collagen. Mild flesh, wobbly gelatinous skin, and rich liver — anko is famously divided into 'seven tools' (skin, fin base, gills, flesh, stomach lining, ovary, liver), each with its own texture and flavor. Even its bones are soft enough that almost the entire fish ends up on the plate.
How it's made
It's traditionally carved hanging: the jaw is hooked onto a metal frame, water poured into the mouth to steady the soft body, and the fish is cut apart in midair — a method born from bones too soft to hold still on a cutting board. It's caught by offshore and small coastal trawlers and landed mainly at Ibaraki ports like Hirakata, Otsu, Kawajiri, Kujimachi, Nakaminato, and Hasaki.
Why it took this shape
The tideline where the Kuroshio and Oyashio currents meet is known as rich fishing ground, and ports facing it, like Oarai, land the most, or so it's said. Making full use of a fish only available in winter gave rise to a hot-pot culture built around its liver, ankimo — prized enough to be prized for its rich, dense flavor as a taste of winter. Ibaraki has made it a signature 'fish of winter'.
Before You Go
- How to shop at a supermarketHow to choose prepared foods, sashimi, and packaged sushi, when discount stickers tend to appear, region-only specialties, buying by weight, the checkout and bagging flow, and sampling etiquette at a local supermarket.
- 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).
- Foods to look for in springA guide to foods often seen in Japan around spring — early bonito, bamboo shoots, sakura mochi, hanami bento, new-season tea, and butterbur sprouts — with rough pointers for finding them.
Dishes in the same style
- HamoA fish so fine-boned it demands the knife skill of hone-kiri, said to fatten on the rains of early summer. Essential to Kyoto's Gion Festival, nearby coastal grounds able to supply the city quickly saw demand concentrate and the craft sharpen.
- MutsugoroA fish found only on the mudflats of the Ariake Sea, known for skipping across the mud on its fins and eaten simmered or grilled. Confined to the sea's uniquely vast tidal flats, it survives nowhere else, alongside a distinctive spear-jab fishing method.
Ingredients and dishes from this land
Known for it here
- Known for it here: Ibaraki, Oarai
Facing a fishing ground where the Kuroshio and Oyashio currents meet, this port town is closely tied to the hung-carving method and its anko hot pot.
Contrast
- TorafuguA premium fish whose toxin requires a licensed chef to prepare. Sliced paper-thin as tessa sashimi or simmered in hot pot — fish raised in fast strait currents firm up notably, and ports with large markets refined the knife skill needed to serve it safely.
- KawahagiA fish whose skin is peeled off whole in preparation — the source of its name. Its mild flesh is famously mixed with its rich liver as 'kimo-ae', and the liver swells largest in colder months, when winter catches fetch the highest prices.
Uses
- Ankou-nabeMonkfish meat, skin, liver, and stomach simmered with vegetables, a winter pot of northern Ibaraki. It is described as a more approachable version of dobujiru, which fishermen ate aboard their boats, and comes in miso and soy-sauce versions.
- DaifukuOne of the most basic shapes in wagashi: pounded mochi wrapped around sweet bean paste. A thick, saltier mochi called "harabuto-mochi" is said to have been eaten in the Edo period, later shrinking into the handheld "daifuku-mochi" known today.
- TaiyakiImagawayaki batter baked in a fish-shaped mold. Said to have emerged in the late Meiji era when someone reworked imagawayaki's batter into the shape of an auspicious fish, and some shops are said to still bake one at a time in single molds.
- OshirukoA soupier, sweetened red-bean broth, strained smooth, with mochi or rice dumplings sunk in the bowl. In Kansai it specifically means a smooth-paste soup, while in Kanto the word can cover sweet red-bean dishes more broadly — the line drawn against zenzai is said to shift by region.
- Nama YatsuhashiThe same yatsuhashi dough left unbaked and steamed instead, giving a soft, chewy sweet. Folded triangular versions filled with bean paste became the standard, and a 1960 tea gathering is said to have been the occasion that spread it as a Kyoto confection.
- MonakaCrisp wafer shells made from glutinous rice, sandwiching sweet bean paste. Said to take its name from the phrase "mochizuki no monaka" — the midst of the full moon — in a Heian-era poetry anthology, its round wafer likened to the moon itself.
- NerikiriWhite bean paste worked with gyuhi or grated yam as a binder, then shaped by hand into seasonal motifs — flowers, leaves, scenery. Since the shape is formed purely by hand and simple tools, it is said to show a maker's skill directly, and is treated as a fresh sweet meant to be eaten within a couple of days.
- KintsubaA block of agar-set bean paste dipped thinly in batter and pan-fried on each face. Born in Osaka as "ginTsuba" (silver sword-guard), it is said to have been renamed "kintsuba" (gold) once it reached Edo, where the flour coating browned to a golden color.
- Anko no TomoaeMonkfish liver is pan-fried and worked with miso and sugar into a paste, then tossed with boiled monkfish meat and dried daikon strips — a dish of Soma. It is said to have started as a feast served in May to thank neighbors who helped with rice planting.