【Reading】すし

【English Name】Sushi (salt-preserved fish kanji)

"Sushi" written with this character is one of the Chinese characters used to write "sushi," used alongside other characters meaning the same. In China it meant salted fish paste, and there is a usage example in the dictionary Erya from the 5th to 3rd centuries BCE. Originally, one character meant salted fish paste while the other meant pickled fish—two different things—but in the 3rd-century work Guangya they were treated as synonyms. Its first appearance in Japan is in the "zatsu-sushi" of the Yoro Code compiled in 718, and in the commentary Ryo no Gige the two characters were not distinguished, and thereafter both were read "sushi." In the Wamyo Ruijusho (931-938), the reading "sushi" can be seen. The etymology comes from "sushi" (sour) after the sourness of fermentation, and the modern spelling is an auspicious phonetic-character rendering. In haiku it is a summer season word, and the poet Buson also composed verses about funazushi (fermented crucian carp sushi).