Seafood
Iwagaki
the summer oyster, large and deep-cupped
The summer oyster — larger and deeper-cupped than magaki, taken both wild and farmed.
Lineage
What it's made of
Larger and deeper-cupped than magaki, it releases a rush of juice and concentrated flavor on the first bite. In season through summer, it earns the nickname 'natsugaki,' the summer oyster, prized for tasting clean even in the heat and for its substantial size. The moment the shell opens, the smell of the sea is far stronger than magaki's, and the meat's own springy bite lets its savor seep out slowly.
How it's made
It grows solitary on rocky ground from just below the tideline down to about 20 meters, never forming the large reefs magaki does. Wild ones are taken one by one, often by free divers, while some regions raise them on hanging lines instead. Because it clings to bare rock as it grows, no two shells come out quite the same shape, and the labor of gathering them one at a time keeps supply well below magaki's.
Why it took this shape
Because it spawns at a different time than magaki, which thins out over early summer, iwagaki holds its condition through the season when magaki cannot be eaten. Its scattered, rock-bound way of growing is itself what gives it a different season and a different flavor from its winter counterpart. That same difference in biology is what carries straight through into how the two oysters taste.
Before you go
Dishes in the same style
- AinameA white-fleshed fish of rocky shores, served raw or simmered in old Edomae style. Sedentary by nature, it varies by region, and in some Tohoku ports its liver is eaten too — a fish long prized as a local catch.
- 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.