Common name: Bluespotted boxfish, Black-spotted boxfish, Boxfish, Box puffer, Boxy, Ocellated box-fish, Spotted trunkfish, Trunkfish

Japanese name: Hakofugu (箱河豚)

Taiwan common name: 無斑箱魨、箱河魨、海牛港

Scientific name: Ostracion immaculatus Temminck and Schlegel, 1850

Nigiri sushi detail: Bluespotted boxfish (Hakofugu) Nigiri sushi

Characteristics:

Bluespotted boxfish (Hakofugu) are found in reefs, coral reefs, and seaweed in coastal and inner bays from Iwate Prefecture to Shikoku region. Its body is box-shaped, almost quadrangular in cross-section. Its body length is around 20 cm. It reaches a maximum length of 30 cm. The mucous membrane of its skin is poisonous called pahutoxin, but its meat and organs are not.

22 species of pufferfish can be eaten, but not all parts are edible. The edible parts are limited to “muscle,” “skin,” and “testes,” and which parts are edible depends on the species. Furthermore, some parts are inedible depending on the area where the fish is caught, making it a bit complicated.

The muscles and testes are cooked in miso (soybean paste). It may be a fish for appreciation rather than for eating.

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