【Reading】うずめずし

【English Name】Uzume-zushi

Uzume-zushi is a type of local cuisine handed down in Tsuwano Town, Kanoashi District, Shimane Prefecture, and is also closely related to "uzume-meshi." Its characteristic is that the ingredients are prepared as if hidden beneath the rice served in a bowl or vessel, and the name is said to derive from the verb "uzumeru" (to bury).

Tsuwano is a castle town spread across a mountain basin in southwestern Shimane Prefecture, known nationwide as a "little Kyoto." Locally, wasabi is cultivated as a specialty product and is incorporated as a condiment in uzume-zushi. The ingredients used include tofu, shiitake, sansai (mountain vegetables), and kamaboko (fish cake), and its understated presentation—which at a glance looks like only white rice—is distinctive.

Regarding this "hiding the ingredients" style, there is a theory that it is a remnant of the samurai society that valued frugality and economy, and a tradition that the custom of refraining from luxury lies in the background. Tsuwano was once the castle town of the Kamei clan of the Tsuwano domain, and there was a historical soil in which such food culture took root.

Tsuwano's food culture is diverse: besides uzume-meshi, Tsuwano-zushi and inari-zushi are also widely known, and many dishes lavishly incorporating local ayu (sweetfish), wasabi, and mountain vegetables have been handed down continuously to the present day.