Raw
Chisha Namasu
Chisha namasu — crinkled lettuce tossed with vinegared miso and flaked fish
Kakichisha, an heirloom crinkled lettuce grown around Shimonoseki, is torn by hand and tossed with vinegared miso, flaked grilled fish, or whitebait. It is said to have been devised by the Mori domain's people after being impoverished by the Battle of Sekigahara, and is also known as "chishamomi."
- Origin: Yamaguchi Shimonoseki
- About 830 km west of Tokyo
What it's made of
The star ingredient is kakichisha, a crinkled lettuce grown around Shimonoseki with a pleasant bitterness and faint sweetness. The dressing blends barley miso with sugar, vinegar, and citrus juice into a mellow, tangy paste, often layered with flaked grilled fish or dried whitebait. The result pairs the crisp bite of the bright green leaves with the savory aroma of the dressing. Kakichisha has grown harder to find in recent years, so many households now substitute sunny lettuce or garland chrysanthemum.
How it's made
The lettuce is torn into large pieces and drained well, while the dressing is worked from miso, sugar, vinegar, and citrus juice ground together until smooth. Flaked grilled fish, dried whitebait, or reconstituted wakame is folded in, and everything is tossed together just before eating so it doesn't turn watery. When the dressing tastes too sharp, ground sesame or mirin is added to soften it, with each household adjusting the balance to taste. The kneading motion used to toss the leaves also gives the dish its other name, "chishamomi."
Why it took this shape
The dish is said to have been devised by people connected to the Mori clan, impoverished after the Battle of Sekigahara, as a way to make full use of the kakichisha they grew in their own gardens. Dressing a nearby leaf vegetable with keeping miso, rather than reaching for tofu or dried goods, hints at the resourcefulness born of a frugal era. As a combination that also delivers calcium and protein, it is said to have taken root as an everyday family dish.
Dishes in the same style
- Akagarei no KomaburiRoe-bearing red flounder is sliced into sashimi and tossed with its own boiled, crumbled eggs, a dish from around the Amijiro area of Iwami Town. Said to have descended from a similar dish made with crucian carp roe, it pairs rich eggs with mild, fatty winter flounder for festivals and New Year's.
- Amagi no KawatakeA rare wild freshwater algae, found only in the Kogane River in Asakura, is dressed with sweet or three-flavor vinegar — said to have once been presented to the shogun, and now conservation efforts continue as it's listed as endangered.
Ingredients and dishes from this land
Also from Yamaguchi
- Chikin Chikin GoboBite-size fried chicken and deep-fried burdock are tossed in a sweet soy glaze in this dish, born in Yamaguchi's school lunches. A nutrition teacher is said to have devised it around 1995 from recipes submitted by families, and its catchy, rhythmic name helped it spread into a statewide favorite.
- Choshu KurokashiwaSaid to draw on the blood of Kurokashiwa, a natural-monument fowl native to Yamaguchi and Shimane, developed into a jidori by a Yamaguchi research station and finished and named by a poultry farm; reportedly free-ranged for 80–100 days.
- Fugu no KaraagePufferfish, marinated in soy sauce and sake, is coated in potato starch and deep-fried—a homely dish from the Shimonoseki and Hagi areas. While pricier tiger pufferfish goes into sashimi and hot pot, the more affordable shirosabafugu species is the one most often fried this way.
- Fuku SashiPufferfish sashimi is sliced so thin it becomes translucent, then arranged in a chrysanthemum pattern in this Shimonoseki dish. Locals call the fish "fuku," a homophone for good fortune, and eat it with citrus ponzu and scallion; the practice traces to 1888, when eating pufferfish was legalized in Yamaguchi alone.
- GobomakiLizardfish skin, a byproduct of making fish cakes, is wrapped around a skewer of burdock root and grilled with a basting sauce—a dish from Hagi. Because it uses lizardfish, prized for the region's grilled fish cakes, seafood processors often make the two together, and it is a fixture of festival and cherry-blossom bento.
- Gube JiruGube—small limpets, two to three centimeters across, gathered from rocky shores and breakwaters—are simmered into both the stock and the filling of this miso soup. It comes from Mishima, an island about 45 kilometers off Hagi's coast, where it was eaten not only by fishing families but by farming households near the shore.