Raw
Onomi no Sashimi
Onomi no Sashimi — thin-sliced, marbled whale tail meat eaten raw
Thinly sliced, marbled whale meat from the narrow cut near the tail fin, served raw as sashimi in the town of Taiji. In a town with a history of traditional whaling reaching back to the Edo period, where every part of the whale is used, this cut is counted among the rarest.
- Origin: Wakayama Taiji
- About 420 km southwest of Tokyo
What it's made of
"Onomi" is a rare cut of whale meat taken from the base of the tail fin, yielding only a small amount from each animal and long prized in the town of Taiji. Finely marbled with fat, the meat is tender and carries a faint sweetness. It is typically sliced thin and served as sashimi, and depending on how the fat and lean meat marble together, it is further divided into names like "aburasunoko" or "kanoko" — a level of detail that marks it as a luxury cut.
How it's made
The meat is cut from around the base of the tail, sliced thin to show off its marbling, with any tough sinew trimmed away before serving as sashimi. Taiji's whaling culture reportedly developed an elaborate system for classifying every part of the whale — red meat, fatty cuts, organs — and onomi sits at the most refined end of that system, its name changing with the exact balance of fat and lean. It is usually eaten simply, dipped in soy sauce with a little condiment.
Why it took this shape
Organized whaling in Taiji is said to date to 1606, when Wada Yorimoto began systematic hunts that later grew into the "old-style whaling of Kumano." A net-and-harpoon method devised in 1675 reportedly made it possible to land species that would otherwise sink once killed, expanding the catch. Communities in Kumano are said to have used nearly every part of the whale — meat, organs, bone, and skin — leaving little to waste, and within that tradition the scarce onomi cut came to be treated as the most valuable part of all.
Before you go
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 Wakayama
- BouriA whole, unpeeled parent taro is simmered over two days for this New Year's dish from the Ayukawa area of Tanabe City's Ото̄ district. One account holds that villagers gave up pounding mochi for six hundred years to atone for once turning away a fleeing prince, eating this in its place.
- Goma ToufuRaw sesame is skinned, ground, and worked with mountain water and Yoshino arrowroot into a simmered block of shojin cuisine. Said to have supplied protein for monks who abstained from meat and fish, it's now a familiar Koyasan souvenir and a fixture on Japanese menus.
- Gonpachi no Abura ItameGonbachi, formally known as itadori knotweed, is blanched, peeled, and quickly stir-fried in oil for this spring dish. Thick, well-grown stalks that snap with a crisp pop are prized for a crunchy bite and a faint sourness.
- Hatagonbo ZushiA stout, round burdock called hatagonbo, grown on the steep red-clay slopes of Hashimoto City's Nishihata district, is sliced into rounds, hollowed at the center, and packed with vinegared rice. Cultivation had nearly died out until a local cooperative revived it around 2013, roughly seventy years on.
- Igami no NitsukeIgami — what southern Wakayama calls the parrotfish — is simmered whole in a sweet-salty broth. Feeding on seaweed among winter rocks leaves it free of any off-flavor, and around Tanabe it's said to be served head-to-tail in place of sea bream for New Year's.
- Inoko MochiNon-glutinous and sticky rice are cooked with taro, mashed, and shaped into balls coated with lightly salted sweet red bean paste. Offered to the harvest god on the Day of the Boar in the old tenth lunar month, it's also made for autumn festivals in parts of southern Wakayama.