【Reading】てずかん

【English Name】Tezu Pot

A tezu-game is a dedicated vessel for keeping on hand the vinegared water—commonly called "tezu"—into which a chef dips the fingertips during the nigiri sushi process.

When handling vinegared rice with bare hands, the shari would stick to the hands if nothing were done. So the chef lightly passes the fingers through tezu, a small amount of vinegar mixed into water, and moves to the act of forming nigiri with the skin moistened. The role of keeping this tezu always at hand falls precisely to the tezu-game.

Since ancient times, small earthenware vessels (kame) were the mainstream. The kame itself is a vessel widely used throughout Japan for storing liquids and for fermentation, and there are records of kame being used to prepare vinegar even in the black Satsuma ware (kuro-satsuma) of Satsuma pottery. In the sushi kitchen as well, earthenware kame have been valued for their ability to keep the temperature change of the vinegared water gradual.

While today many sushi shops have switched to vessels of stainless steel or plastic, in counter-kappo establishments there remains a persistent tendency to deliberately choose an earthenware tezu-game out of respect for the atmosphere of the place. The blending of tezu has its own style at each shop, and many chefs hold their own particular preferences for the concentration of vinegar and the water temperature. It can be called a plain but indispensable tool that quietly supports the entire series of motions in forming nigiri.