【Reading】のりまき

【English Name】Nori Maki (Seaweed Roll)

Sushi made by spreading vinegared rice over a sheet of nori and rolling it up with ingredients as the core—its collective name is nori-maki. While most people picture maki-zushi (rolled sushi) when they hear "nori-maki," the same name is also used for foods such as onigiri or rice crackers wrapped in nori.

The oldest record in literature
Nori-maki first appears in literature in the Ryori Sankai-go, published in 1750. Thirty-seven years later, in the 1787 work Shichijugo-nichi, one can read that it had already entered the menu at shops in Edo as sushi that could be eaten without dirtying the hands.

The conventions of Edomae sushi
When you order "nori-maki" at an Edomae sushi restaurant, kanpyo-maki (dried gourd roll) is served, as a long-standing custom. Even today, not a few shops keep this tradition.

Variations of ingredients and Sukeroku
The ingredients used as the core are wide-ranging, including tuna, cucumber, shrimp, tamagoyaki, and kanpyo. An assortment of nori-maki paired with inari-zushi is affectionately known as "Sukeroku," and the origin of the name lies in a play on words linking the name Agemaki, a character appearing in kabuki plays, with the abura-age (fried tofu) and maki-zushi.