Rice dishes ── Sushi
Funa-zushi
fermented crucian carp, the archetype of Japan's oldest sushi
Roe-bearing crucian carp from Lake Biwa, salted and then packed in rice to ferment for half a year or more — the archetype of narezushi. Sharply sour and pungent, some eat the rice too, others scrape it off.
- Origin: Shiga Omihachiman
- About 340 km west of Tokyo
Lineage
What it's made of
The main ingredient is roe-bearing nigorobuna, a crucian carp caught in Lake Biwa. Scaled and gutted, the fish is heavily salted, then packed into a barrel with cooked rice. The rice serves as a fermenting bed rather than something to eat outright — over time it turns porridge-soft with lactic fermentation, while the fish takes on sharp sourness and a distinctive pungency. Cut open, a single fish appears packed with roe.
How it's made
Nigorobuna are caught in early spring and salted, then left to cure for two months or more. Once rinsed of salt, the fish is layered with cooked rice in a barrel, weighted down, and left to ferment for six months to a year or longer in what's called the main cure. As lactic fermentation proceeds, the rice breaks down and its sourness and aroma move into the flesh. Because the curing and eating seasons don't line up, some households let a batch sit for several years.
Why it took this shape
In an age without refrigeration, salting and lactic fermentation in rice is thought to have been chosen as a way to keep fish for the long term. Shiga, ringed by the freshwater expanse of Lake Biwa rather than the sea, needed a way to preserve fish without relying on ocean brine, and this method of packing fish in sealed rice is said to have taken root there. In recent years, as nigorobuna numbers have declined, fewer households still make it.
Before you go
- How to read a vertical menuIn shops with strips of handwritten menu items on the wall, the top-right spot is often used for recommendations.
- How to use a convenience storeA quick guide to choosing rice balls and hot snacks, buying coffee, paying by cash, IC card, or tap payment, using the eat-in corner, and sorting your trash — the basics for a first visit.
- How to shop at a supermarketHow to choose prepared foods, sashimi, and packaged sushi, when discount stickers tend to appear, region-only specialties, buying by weight, the checkout and bagging flow, and sampling etiquette at a local supermarket.
Dishes in the same style
- Aburi-zushiNigiri with just its surface flash-seared by torch or hot iron. Unlike Edomae's shigoto curing for keeping, the searing here is done purely for the change in aroma and fat it brings — a relatively recent way of eating sushi.
- Aichi HakozushiVinegared rice is packed into a wooden frame, topped with shrimp, eel, shiitake, and egg arranged diagonally, and pressed. Placing toppings on the diagonal so everyone gets a fair share of each is said to be a feature of the Owari and western Mikawa style, made for celebrations.
Ingredients and dishes from this land
Contrast
- Isaza MameIsaza mame simmers Lake Biwa's endemic isaza goby with soybeans in soy sauce and mirin. The bean's earthy richness meets the fish's mild flavor, and around Lake Biwa's northern shore the dish is said to appear at both everyday meals and formal gatherings.
- Shijimi JiruA miso soup built on seta shijimi, a clam found only in Lake Biwa, simmered in a kelp-based broth. Plumper and richer than other shijimi species, it is said to taste best in spring before spawning, though catches have grown scarce in recent years.
- Hitokawa ZushiVinegared rice and colorful toppings such as dried shiitake, carrot, and shredded egg are layered four or five times in a wooden mold and pressed. Served by lifting off one layer at a time, the sushi can feed twenty to forty people at once, making it a fixture at large gatherings.
Also from Shiga
- Aka Konnyaku NiKonjac dyed reddish with iron oxide, a specialty of Omi-Hachiman, is pan-simmered with bonito flakes and soy sauce. The color holds even after cooking, and the dish is a fixture at ceremonial meals and school lunches alike.
- Amenoio GohanA whole Lake Biwa trout, migrating upstream to spawn, is set atop rice and cooked together; "amenoio" means "rain fish," a name tied to the trout's autumn run after rainfall. The flesh and roe are flaked and mixed through the rice, traditionally made in large pots for gatherings.
- Biwamasu SashimiBiwamasu, a trout found only in Lake Biwa, is filleted and served raw as sashimi. The fish grows richest from early to midsummer and is prized locally as "the jewel of Lake Biwa" — a fish so scarce that it rarely reaches markets beyond the lakeshore.
- Chojifu no Karashi AeChojifu, a square baked wheat gluten unique to Shiga, is paired with cucumber and dressed in mustard-miso vinegar. The gluten also appears in Buddhist vegetarian meals, and its chewy texture with a refreshing tang makes the dish a staple at family gatherings.
- Dongame JiruEggplant scored with a crosshatch pattern is simmered in dashi, then finished with miso and ground sesame. Said to originate in the merchant town of Gokasho, the name compares the muddy look of the sesame in the broth and the eggplant's scored skin to a turtle's shell.
- Ebi MameFreshwater shrimp from Lake Biwa are simmered sweet-savory with soybeans. Inexpensive and long-keeping, the dish is eaten as everyday fare, but is also served at New Year's with a wish for long life — that one might live, like the bent-backed shrimp, into old age.