Funazushi

Dish of fermented stuffed crucian carp

Funazushi is a typical type of nare zushi, an ancient Japanese type of sushi. It is a local dish of Shiga Prefecture (formerly Ōmi Province), where it has been made since ancient times using Lake Biwa's nigorobuna (Carassius auratus grandoculis) and other fish as the main ingredients.

Funazushi is a type of nare zushi. Nare zushi is a food made by salting raw fish for several months, removing the salt, and then mixing it with cooked rice and fermenting it with lactic acid bacteria. Generally, the rice used for fermentation is discarded and only the fish is eaten. Modern sushi is made with rice mixed with vinegar, but this has been around since the 17th century; until then, the word sushi meant nare zushi. Many literature claim that nare zushi originated from a fish storage method found in the mountainous region of Yunnan in Southeast Asia, but there are also different theories. Generally, nigorobuna with eggs are used as a raw material, but gengorobuna are also used. Its manufacturing process varies from vendor to vendor and home to home. In most modern times, the fish is salted in early spring. That is, after the scales, gills, and internal organs except for the ovaries of the raw fish are removed, the belly cavity is stuffed with salt and stored in layers in wooden vats until summer. In summer, the fishes are rinsed for desalt, dried, and placed in a wooden bucket on a bed of cooked rice. On top of that, more rice is spread, and fishes are placed again. After several layers, a drop lid is placed on top, and a weight is placed on the lid. After this, it is stored for several months until winter to ferment. The Shiming, written in southern China in the 3rd century, describes fermenting fish mixed with salt and rice, indicating that the basic process was already developed at this time. The words funazushi and sushi funa are found in the Prince Nagaya (684 – 20 March 729)'s palace Mokkan and Nijō Street Mokkan. The Engishiki, an administrative manual written in the 10th century, describes how nare zushi, a type of fish produced in various parts of Japan, was collected in the capital as a tax. The 11th century Shinsarugakuki mentions Ōmi when it comes to crucian carp. Oda Nobunaga, who helped end the Sengoku period of Japanese civil war in the 16th century, was killed by his subordinate Akechi Mitsuhide. There are various theories as to the cause of the murder, but one theory is that Mitsuhide held a grudge against Akechi Mitsuhide, who prepared the dinner hosted by Oda Nobunaga just before the murder, because Nobunaga complained that the fish he was served was rotten. Funazushi was also served at this meal. In the Edo period, which began in the 17th century, funazushi was made in Ōmi Province (Shiga Prefecture) from crucian carp caught in the spring season and red leaf crucian carp in the fall and winter. However, it is thought that the fermentation process of funazushi made from red leaf crucian carp that did not undergo the high temperatures of the summer season was slow and gradually fell into disuse. The current "funazushi" of Shiga Prefecture is made from spring crucian carp. The 17th century cookbook Gorui Nichiyou Ryouri Shou (合類日用料理抄) describes how to make "sushi from funa in Ōmi". In winter, the fish is gutted through the gill holes, the head is removed, folded over with salt in a container and pickled in salt. After that, black rice is cooked with less water, mixed with salt, and placed in a container with the fish, with a drop lid and a weight on top. After about 20 days, lighten the weight a little. After about 70 days, they can be eaten. If you put heavy weights on top of the lid after even out the load, and store salt water on top of the lid (to keep the air out,) the bones will be tender and taste better if you leave it on until the following fall. The water on the lid is changed daily. The fact that production begins in winter is the exact opposite of today, when production begins in summer. In addition, the current method of preparing funazushi is not exactly the same as that practiced in ancient times, as in many modern cases the weights are gradually increased. In addition, literature from this period often refers to Ōmi crucian carp as gengorobuna. However, this is because many of the crucian carp caught in Lake Biwa were sold under the name of gengorobuna, which was considered a luxury at the time, and it was not until the 1920s that gengorobuna and nigorobuna became generally distinguished from each other. In 1896, Japanese poet Masaoka Shiki wrote a haiku as "while eating funazushi, Seta became evening and the bell of Mii dera temple was heard." (鮒鮓や瀬田の夕照三井の鐘) In an essay titled "A Drop of Bokuju," he also wrote a complaint that "people these days use words derived from funazushi without knowing how to make it." A book published in 1904 states, "Add a little salt to funazushi in a soup dish, pour in hot water, cover with a lid, and after a while it becomes a delicious soup. In an essay published in 1916, the author gave his landlord some gengorobuna funazushi from his hometown, which pleased the landlord, who loved to drink. However, when the author served it to his friends, they all refused to eat it because of the smell. So the author put the funazushi on top of rice, covered it with hot bancha green tea, and ate it in chazuke (rice with green tea.)" In 1935, the commercial production of funazushi was Yasu, Inukami, Takashima, Kurita, Gamo, Kanzaki, and Higashiazai, in that order.