Raw
Torisashi
Torisashi — lightly seared chicken sliced thin and dipped in soy sauce, raw at the core
Sashimi-grade chicken is lightly seared, sliced thin, and dipped in soy sauce with shiso and grated ginger. It's said to descend from a culture of eating cockfighting's losing birds, and today only chicken meeting the prefecture's own raw-poultry safety standard is sold this way.
- Origin: Kagoshima City, Kagoshima
- About 970 km southwest of Tokyo
Lineage
What it's made of
Chicken meant to be eaten raw is lightly seared on the outside, sliced thin, and dipped in soy sauce for this Kagoshima dish. A garnish of shiso, garlic, and grated ginger brings out the chicken's natural sweetness and bite, and cuts ranging from thigh and breast to tenderloin and gizzard all find their way onto the plate, each with its own distinct texture.
How it's made
Chicken destined to be eaten raw is lightly seared on the surface, then sliced thin. It's served with a garnish of shiso, garlic, and grated ginger, dipped in soy sauce before eating. In Kagoshima and neighboring Miyazaki, only chicken meeting the prefectures' own standards for raw processing is sold for this purpose, and because the handling requires such care, the dish is more often eaten at restaurants than made at home.
Why it took this shape
Satsuma samurai are said to have staged cockfights to sharpen their fighting spirit, and the losing bird was reportedly butchered and eaten on the spot. Even after cockfighting was banned, households kept chickens for guests and celebrations, butchering and cooking one as needed, a habit said to have nurtured a food culture comfortable handling chicken closely, including the custom of eating it raw as sashimi.
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 Kagoshima
- Abura ZomenPork and somen are fried together with a splash of broth, the oil and stock emulsifying into a silky coat on the noodles. Just how somen took root in wheat-free Amami isn't clear, but the dish is a fixture whenever people gather, not least for the August Dance festival.
- AkumakiMochi rice steeped in wood-ash lye is wrapped in bamboo sheath and boiled for hours in more lye water — a Boys' Festival sweet said to have fed Saigo Takamori's troops in the field. The lye's alkalinity holds bacteria back, letting it keep for days in Kagoshima's heat and humidity.
- Amami Kokuto-jochuKokuto-jochu permitted to be made only in the Amami Islands of Kagoshima Prefecture. It's said to carry a sweet aroma distinctive to islands where sugarcane cultivation thrives, and around 30 breweries are said to compete on character while observing the liquor tax law's condition that rice koji be used.
- Buta Hone YasaiBone-in pork cut into big chunks is simmered in a large pot with tsuwabuki, daikon, and koshaman taro — an Amami dish essential to New Year's Eve, also called wanfineyasse. It's regarded as a wisdom born of using every part of the island's own black pigs.
- Buta JiruPork simmered with daikon, taro, and other roots in a miso broth, built on Kagoshima's own pork — the prefecture raises more hogs than any other — paired with a barley miso high in koji and correspondingly sweet. A warming bowl for winter, common at home and in school lunches alike.
- Buta MisoBoiled pork is pounded together with miso and sugar into a keeping paste, with peanuts and bonito flakes added in Amami versions. It's said to have grown out of the need to use every part of the one pig a household slaughtered each year, alongside salting and other preserved forms.