Seafood ── Fish
Sanma
Pacific saury — the fish that announces autumn with smoke and salt
A slender migratory fish at its peak in autumn, traditionally grilled whole with salt, innards included. Ports facing waters where the shoals come close to shore land the most, and the fat and bitter innards are said to reflect that year's catch.
- Blue-backed fish
What it's made of
A slender, silver migratory fish at its fattest in autumn. Grilled whole with salt, innards included, it pairs sweet fat with a faint bitterness from the guts — and how much fat and how large a shoal turns up each year tracks that season's sea temperature as it heads south from northern waters, with warmer years said to bring leaner fish.
How it's made
Stick-held dip net fishing gathers a shoal at night with light before scooping it up in one motion, handling it gently enough to protect freshness. Its innards carry a natural bitterness that a fresh fish doesn't turn unpleasant, so how quickly it reaches the table matters as much as anything. Grilled with the scales left on, it's cooked over high heat to crisp the skin.
Why it took this shape
Each autumn, shoals of saury move south from northern waters and come close to shore, and ports facing that route land the most. Around Nemuro in Hokkaido, where the shoals readily approach the coast, saury fishing has centered on stick-held dip nets for exactly that reason. Both the timing and the size of that approach shift year to year with the current and water temperature, so the season itself arrives differently each time.
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
- AjiA blue-backed fish sold year-round, served raw, minced as tataki, or fried. Fish that settle in one fast-flowing strait rather than migrate firm up and fatten, and are pole-and-line caught there under premium regional brand names.
- BuriA 'shusseuo' whose name changes with size. Winter's fat-laden 'kanburi' is prized raw, teriyaki-glazed, or simmered with daikon — bays where it fattens before wintering, then is taken in set nets, are valued for both fat quality and yield.
Ingredients and dishes from this land
Known for it here / Known source
- Known for it here: Hokkaido, Nemuro
Facing waters where saury shoals come close to shore each autumn, this port lands among Japan's largest saury catches by stick-held dip net.
- Known source: Iwate, Ofunato
Uses
- Sanma-zushiA rod-pressed sushi from Kumano, Mie, made by butterflying saury along the back and curing it in citrus vinegar. Said to trace to a shrine ritual for children's growth, and made widely along the Kii Peninsula coast.
- Sanma SurimijiruAutumn-caught saury is pounded into a paste, rolled into dumplings, and simmered with daikon and other vegetables — in the Ishikawaki area it's said to carry pine-needle-shaped daikon shreds and go by the name 'matsubajiru'.
- Sanma no Popo-yakiAutumn saury are minced bones and all, mixed with miso, ginger, scallion, and potato starch, formed into patties, and grilled until browned — a fisherman's dish of Iwaki. The name is said to come from the popping sound the fish's oil made flaring up over charcoal on deck.