It is called Edomae sushi, so the most appropriate place to eat it is Tokyo, formerly known as Edo. The skills of chefs raised in this long history of sushi. The best fishery products in Japan — no, in the world, are all found at Toyosu Market. There is no question that combined with the veteran sushi experts, Tokyo is the battleground for sushi restaurants and where you’ll find the most prestigious locations like Ginza, Nishi azabu etc.
A painting depicting the large tuna catch during the Edo period
After the Kamakura period, it was said that “the sound of the voice calling “shibi” sounds like the day of death, which is ominous,” and when power was passed to the samurai, the word “shibi” became associated with “day of death,” and if a tuna lost its life in battle, it was avoided by the samurai as a good luck charm.
Tuna was mainly caught off the coast of Choshi, and was transported to Edo by boat, then placed on a cart and transported through the city of Edo, hidden by straw mats and covered with water. Tuna is large, and the fact that they looked exactly like Dozaemon, who had been drowned, was one of the reasons they were disliked. The fat in particular spoiled quickly, falling apart, and had a strong odor.
At this time there was no ice, so tuna had to be salted. It was cut into blocks, salt was spread all over and in it, and that was it. At Uogashi (the market before Tsukiji), it was treated at shops that specialized in salting fish. The dark, discolored, salty chunks of flesh really were nothing but “Gezakana”.
Gezakana －Relatively low-cost sushi ingredients, such as gizzard shad and horse mackerel. Bluefin tuna used to be also called gezakana in the Edo period, for losing its freshness easily.
This is why they were treated as a lower-class fish, but something changed around 1804-1818. At that time, soy sauce was widely used in the Kanto region, especially in Choshi, so a preservation technique was devised in which fillets of tuna were marinated in salty soy sauce and delivered safely while still raw. Needless to say, this is what we call today’s Zuke. This encounter with soy sauce helped to popularize tuna in the Edo period.
Tuna is originally caught in the open sea. However, due to some tidal current or abnormal weather, an incident occurred where large numbers of tuna were caught in nearby waters. This happened in 1832. It is said that as many as 10,000 were caught in one day. Because so many were caught, it spread, and Edo city was overflowing with tuna. Fresher tuna began arriving in Edo than before.
Around 1810, a new type of sushi was invented in Edo by Hanaya Yohei, in which fish fillets were sold on vinegared rice. Unlike traditional sushi that is fermented (such as narezushi), Kohei’s sushi is made by placing fish meat marinated in soy sauce on top of vinegared rice.
This fast-serving style marked the birth of modern edomae sushi and helped elevate tuna from gezakana to a prized topping in Japanese cuisine.
We went to Tsujiki wholesale fish market today also, and actually got to enter at the time all food professionals are buying and selling.
The tuna auction begins at 5:00 am. Then about 6:30 am, intermediate wholesalers start lining up their winning bid tuna. Therefore, it is around the time when people like masters from sushi restaurants come to buy fish. Once professional deals settle down at 10:00 am, all the other visitors and foreign tourists are allowed to get in the market.
What exactly is the difference between on what is going on before and after 10:00 am? That is how determined sellers and buyers are. It is entirely full of sprit because it is a place for exchanging valuable information.
This is one situation I saw how they interact. As they talk about how Tuna, air transported from Boston, is fatty but doesn’t have any flavor of Tuna compared to the inshore ones, they let me try a piece. The one from inshore definitely tastes more as Tuna for sure.
“I’ll take about a 20cm width of the belly, around this part of the inshore one.”
We really don’t understand but there is a regulation, that taking photos is prohibited at a seafood wholesale market. And its visiting hours have recently changed from 10am（11am） started from 15 June, 2018.
Even though cameras are forbidden as a rule, if you ask intermediate wholesalers for permission, they will gladly let you take pictures. It doesn’t seem quite right to me to have such a rule, as if it were an art museum.
We would like to thank all the intermediate wholesalers who willingly accepted me for shootings at their shops. We are praying you will carry on more thriving business.
