【Reading】あかしだこ

【English Name】Akashi octopus

Akashi-dako is the general name for the common octopus (madako) caught in the Akashi Strait off Akashi City, Hyogo Prefecture. This sea area has complex submarine topography where reef zones and sandy bottoms intermingle, providing an environment inhabited by abundant prey such as shrimp, crabs, and shellfish. Tempered by the fierce tidal currents, its legs have a thick, sturdy shape, and it is known for its firm texture and deep umami.

The season is mainly June to August, with July and August being the peak of fishing. Because fishermen go out to fish wearing straw hats during this period, it is also called mugiwara-dako (straw-hat octopus).

Octopus fishing in the Akashi Strait has a deep history, with octopus pots more than 2,000 years old having been excavated, and bottom-trawl fishing and octopus-pot fishing continuing since the Yayoi period. Akashi octopus fishing is even recorded in the Edo-period industrial work Nihon Sankai Meisan Zue (published 1799). However, in the cold-weather damage of 1963, the seawater temperature dropped to 4 degrees Celsius and the population fell to near extinction. To restore the resource, parent octopuses carrying eggs were brought in and released from Amakusa in Kumamoto Prefecture and the Goto Islands in Nagasaki Prefecture, in an effort to rebuild the population. Poor catches were also experienced in 1983 and 1996, and since 2016 the annual catch has hovered around 700 tons, with recovery yet to be achieved.

Representative octopus dishes of Akashi include tamago-yaki (Akashi-yaki), tako-meshi (octopus rice), and tako-ten (octopus tempura). In the Kansai region there is an established custom of eating octopus at Hangesho (a seasonal day around early July), which helps support the consumption of Akashi octopus.