【Reading】えぞいしかげがい

【English Name】Aleutian Cockle

Ezo-ishikagegai is a bivalve belonging to the family Cardiidae, written in kanji as 蝦夷石蔭貝. It is a species first scientifically described in 1839 by the French naturalist Deshayes, and its English name is the Aleutian cockle. In the wild it inhabits sandy-muddy seabeds at depths of about 10-100 m along the Pacific coast from the Kashima-nada to the Sea of Okhotsk.

Almost all that is distributed in the market today is cultivated in Hirota Bay in Rikuzentakata City, Iwate Prefecture. Aquaculture was successfully commercialized in 1996, but the farming facilities were devastated by the Great East Japan Earthquake of 2011. Shipments resumed in 2013 and continue to the present. The shipping season is mainly June to September, and the peak season is said to be July to September.

Its appearance resembles the cockle (torigai) of the same family Cardiidae, and it was once treated as a substitute. However, its thick, meaty flesh and a rich sweetness reminiscent of crustaceans came to be valued, and it has now established a distinct status as a high-end sushi topping. In the market, ishikage is sometimes misheard as ishigaki, so it is also distributed under the common name ishigakigai (cockle).