Kujira Gohan

Kujira gohan is a rice dish cooked with stir-fried whale skin along with daikon, burdock, and shiitake mixed in, a dish handed down in the Iwami region around Hamada and Masuda. Whale is said to be highly nutritious and richly flavorful, and as the fatty ingredients mingle with the rice, the dish takes on a warming character well suited to winter.

The process begins by pouring boiling water over the whale skin to remove excess fat. Once trimmed, the whale is finely chopped and stir-fried together with daikon, burdock, and shiitake, then seasoned with soy sauce. This is mixed into freshly cooked rice to finish, though some households instead cook the whale, vegetables, and rice all together from the start. When frozen whale is used, it is best thawed slowly in the refrigerator, and because it cooks through quickly, care is taken not to overheat it.

Hamada and Masuda, the leading cities of the Iwami region, have both long relied on fishing, and a rice dish built around whale skin is said to have been eaten there since early times. Echoing the whale's great size, children are said to eat the dish on Setsubun in hopes of growing up to achieve something great themselves. In the early Showa era, households in this snowy region reportedly bought whale skin in bulk and salted it for storage, and this way of life is thought to be how the custom of eating whale took root in the area.