Sushi History : where came from on the globe?

Have you ever eaten “sushi”? In your country, are there sushi bars or sushi restaurants? Now world wide, sushi is a very famous food.

As you know, sushi is a dish where raw fish is on a small rice ball. This rice ball is boiled rice mixed with vinegar. If you have not eaten sushi yet, you may be scared to eat raw fish.

We have a reason to be able to eat raw fish nowadays. That raw fish is very fresh and no problem to eat. That is because fishes are transported frozen. Thanks for the development of the freezing technique.

Okay, on the other hand, I have a question. What is sushi? What does sushi mean? What is the concept of sushi? Normally sushi is food where there is raw fish on a rice ball, but can you say that is the concept of sushi?

Here in Japan, we have one called ちらし寿司/Chirashi-zushi. ちらし寿司 is made by mother in home, in many cases. It is sushi with some kinds of ingredients on a rice plate. It is easy to cook. ちらし寿司 doesn’t use a rice ball.

Also, in the 1960s, in California, the US, a new type of sushi was invented. It is called “California roll”. When the California roll was imported to Japan from the US, Japanese people were very surprised.

California roll is the type of sushi that rice is rolled in. Until that time, here in Japan, when we call a sushi of rolled type, it means that rice is rolled in seaweed. But California roll is different from it. California roll is one where seaweed is rolled by rice. When Japanese people looked at it first, we were surprised at the time.

In this place, I will tell you about the history of sushi a little. It is said that the origin of sushi was fermented food. It seems that the originated type of sushi was made in south Asia. It was made for preserving fish.

Raw fish is easy to rot. So raw fish could not be preserved in tropical areas of south Asia in the old days. South Asian people made raw fish fermented by using rice, for the purpose of preserving it. It was the beginning of sushi.

You will be surprised, if you look at the origin of sushi. When I looked at it first, I didn’t hope to eat it. Its smell is very strong. That origin type of sushi is called “なれずし/Narezushi”.

Look at these pictures. It is the “なれずし” of Japan. That had been made since about more than 1000 years ago. And current type sushi started to be made in Tokyo, about 200 years ago. Current type sushi was made and sold in stalls on the street. And, at that time, sushi didn’t use raw fish.

You have known sushi has various types. ちらし寿司, California roll, and なれずし. All of these are sushi. So we cannot say the concept of sushi is a raw fish on a rice ball.

Surprisingly, here in Japan, in many cases robots are making sushi nowadays. Not human cooks but robot cooks. In many cases, robot cooks make rice balls. And human workers only put raw fish on a rice ball. So, already now, making sushi doesn't need human cooks.

Please watch this video about sushi robots.

Sushi robot video 1 https://youtu.be/z-0HbeFBgEU

Sushi robot video 2 https://youtu.be/rlUzMN0KsiI

Of course, there are also human sushi cooks in Japan. But, unfortunately sushi is generally made by robots here. That reason is that robot made sushi is a more low cost product than human made sushi.

The development of freezing technology influenced how to cook sushi very much. Because freezing technology made it possible to preserve raw fish for a long time and transport it for a long distance.

It can be said the concept of sushi has been changing. And the concept of sushi will change from now on too. It may be said that technology has changed the concept of it. And it may be that robot made sushi will become ordinally in this century. What do you think about it?