【Reading】にしんずし

【English Name】Nishin-zushi (herring sushi)

Nishin-zushi is a name broadly referring to sushi using herring (nishin), a form of local cuisine with deep ties to the Hokuriku region and Hokkaido.

Its representative example is "kabura-zushi." This narezushi-style dish, in which fish is inserted into a slit in a turnip (kabu) and pickled with rice koji, is a traditional food rooted in the Hokuriku region. Although yellowtail is now often the main material, dried herring (mi-gaki nishin) reconstituted in water was once the standard ingredient. In the area around Tsuruga City, Fukui Prefecture, the method of kabura-zushi using herring is preserved to this day.

Mi-gaki nishin is dried herring with the head and innards removed, and it was a pivotal food for preservation and distribution in an era without refrigeration. The term "nishin mi-gaki" already appears in Matsumae Ezoki, completed in Kyoho 2 (1717), and records remain of the Kitamaebune (northbound cargo ships) carrying it to various places throughout the Edo period. In Kyoto, simmered herring became established as a household side dish, and it also widely permeated as an ingredient in nishin soba.

Along the Sea of Japan coast of Hokkaido there were once large-scale spring migrations of herring, and fishing villages saw unprecedented prosperity. However, as catches declined, market prices soared, and herring has now come to be treated as a rare, high-grade ingredient. As a sushi topping, too, it is becoming ever harder to obtain.