Rice dishes ── Sushi
Sakana-zushi
Sakana-zushi — whole mackerel or horse mackerel cured in vinegar over hand-shaped rice
Mackerel or horse mackerel is butterflied, salted, then cured in vinegar before being set over hand-shaped rice — a whole-fish sushi from the Miyazaki coast, best known in Kadogawa, a former shogunate domain, and said by some to have crossed over from Shikoku; a winter-festival treat.
- Origin: Miyazaki Kadogawa
- About 830 km southwest of Tokyo
What it's made of
Sakana-zushi is a preserved sushi from the northern coast of Miyazaki, made by curing whole mackerel, horse mackerel, or sardine in salt and vinegar. It's known as a specialty of Kadogawa, once a shogunate-administered territory during the Edo period. The fish is firmly salted, then marinated in vinegar until no pink shows through to the center, giving the dish a concentrated tang and rich fish flavor.
How it's made
Mackerel and horse mackerel are butterflied open from the back, sardine from the belly, and all are firmly salted. They are then marinated in vinegar, sometimes overnight, until fully cured through. In the Toriehama area of Kawaminami, freshly caught small fish such as crimson sea bream or young horse mackerel are filleted, salted, and marinated in vinegar while the sushi rice is prepared separately: a vinegar-sugar mixture is folded into hot rice and left to cool slowly before being shaped by hand and topped with the cured fish.
Why it took this shape
One account holds that this style of sushi crossed the sea from a similar dish in Shikoku and took root along Miyazaki's coast, and it's said to have once been an essential treat at winter festivals. In Kadogawa, a shogunate territory at the time, it reportedly became a favorite dish served to visiting officials. With traveling fish sellers bringing in fresh catch from the Hyuga Sea, it's said to have taken hold as something households could put together easily at home as well.
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
Also from Miyazaki
- Chikin NanbanFried chicken dipped in sweet vinegar and topped with tartar sauce, said to have originated in Nobeoka, Miyazaki. It's said to trace to a sweet-vinegar fried chicken devised as staff food at a Western-food restaurant in the 1950s.
- Futatabi DangoDumpling flour is kneaded, steamed with freshly picked mugwort folded in, then pounded a second time — a Nobeoka treat named for that unusual second working of the dough, wrapped around sweet bean paste and dusted with soybean flour into a soft, pale-green dumpling.
- Hie-zushiWild boar bones are simmered into a broth, then rice, millet, and vegetables are added and cooked down into a porridge — a Shiiba village dish built on millet, a grain said to have been eaten in Japan since before rice farming; whenever a boar was dressed, the porridge it made was shared around the whole village to see out the long winter.
- Hyuga Kurokawa Kabocha no NimonoHyuga kurokawa kabocha, a black-skinned heirloom pumpkin first grown in Miyazaki City, is cut into large chunks and simmered slowly in sugar and light soy sauce — lighter and less sweet than a Western pumpkin, but it holds its shape well and its skin is good to eat too.
- Iriko MochiGlutinous rice is parched and ground into iriko flour, then kneaded with starch syrup, rested, and cut into bars — a Miyazaki sweet said to have arrived from the Satsuma domain as a festival treat, once handed out to neighbors to wish for a child's healthy growth.
- Jidori no Miso KorobakashiJidori chicken is rolled around a dry pan with no added water, coaxed with a miso glaze without letting it catch — a home-cooked dish from around Kobayashi City, its name a western-Miyazaki dialect word for tumbling food in a pot as it cooks, the mix of vegetables and seasoning varying from house to house.