【Reading】にほんばしうおがし

【English Name】Nihonbashi Fish Market

The Nihonbashi Uogashi was a wholesale market for fish and shellfish that existed around Nihonbashi in Tokyo from the early Edo period until the Taisho era. It is said to have originated when fishermen from Settsu Province (around present-day Osaka) were invited along with Tokugawa Ieyasu's entry into Edo.

Located in the area along the Nihonbashi River around present-day Nihonbashi-Muromachi in Chuo Ward, it functioned as the center of marine-product distribution supporting Edo's food culture. Fresh Edomae fish and shellfish gathered here, and it eventually came to be deeply involved in the development of nigiri sushi as well.

The market suffered devastating damage in the Great Kanto Earthquake of 1923 (Taisho 12), after which it followed the flow of relocating to Tsukiji. As the predecessor of Tsukiji Market, it is a historically important place that laid the foundation of Japan's fish-eating culture and sushi culture.

The Nihonbashi-Muromachi area is still a commercial district where long-established shops line up, and historic buildings such as the Mitsukoshi main store remain. Traces of where the fish market once stood can be seen faintly in place names, monuments, and the like.