Kohada (Gizzard Shad) Sushi

Kohada / Gizzard Shad

Silver-skinned Fish

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Clupeiformes, Clupeidae, Konosirus

The kohada changes its name as it grows larger, and the adult is called konoshiro. It lives in schools in the inner bays of East Asia, and in Japan is caught in large numbers in Ise Bay, the Seto Inland Sea, and elsewhere. Its spawning season is spring, and it is a "reverse promotion fish" whose value drops as it grows larger.

A saltwater fish that lives in inner bays throughout East Asia. Adults are about 30 centimeters, with a flat body and a small, rounded snout. As it grows, its name changes from shinko to kohada to nakazumi to konoshiro, but the larger it gets, the more small bones it has and the harder it is to eat, so the younger it is, the higher the price. In particular, the first catch of shinko, about 4 centimeters caught in early summer, is a high-class fish that can fetch tens of thousands of yen per kilogram. Kohada is caught in large numbers in Tokyo Bay too, and because it does not spoil when cured with vinegar and salt, it has long been prized by stall sushi shops and by "sushi sellers" who hawk sushi around town. When it comes to the representative of "hikarimono" (shiny-skinned fish) in Edomae sushi, it is kohada. Kohada is in season from July to September. Generally, it is first cured with salt, then soaked in vinegar, lifted out, and left to let the flavor settle before being pressed into nigiri, one whole fish or one fillet per piece. For fingertip-sized shinko, 2 to 3 pieces are used per nigiri, but sometimes chefs compete by placing about 8 on a single piece. The just-born shinko offers a sweetness that melts in the mouth along with the taste characteristic of a blue-backed fish, and kohada has few small bones and little of the smell peculiar to blue-backed fish, making it easy to eat. For this reason it is more popular than nakazumi or konoshiro, but in fact nakazumi and konoshiro are toppings for connoisseurs. They certainly have many small bones, but their deep flavor and the distinctive aroma in the skin make sushi connoisseurs groan with delight. Kohada and shinko are generally used as sushi toppings, but konoshiro-sized fish may have their innards and so on removed, be stuffed with vinegared rice, and made into sugata-zushi (whole-fish sushi). In any case, the flavor changes greatly depending on the amount of salt and vinegar and the curing time, so it is a topping that tests the skill of the sushi chef.

Kohada, which tests the skill of the sushi chef

The kohada that were taboo for samurai

The adult kohada is called konoshiro, but because "konoshiro" can also be read as "kono shiro" (this castle), it is said that in the Edo period the shogunate forbade samurai from eating it, deeming it outrageous for a samurai to "eat a castle." Also, because it is cut open from the belly during preparation, it was called "harakiri-uo" (belly-cutting fish) and was sometimes served at seppuku, making it an inauspicious food for samurai. Thus, although it was avoided by samurai, the common Edo townsfolk, declaring "What the heck, what's tasty is tasty," are said to have changed its name to "kohada" and eaten it.