Shizuoka's food cultureKnow

``Sanma sushi'' is a local dish that is made by soaking back-opened saury in vinegar, placing it on top of sushi rice, packing it in a wooden box, placing a weight on it, and leaving it overnight. It is said that during the Muromachi period, the priest of Shirahama Shrine, distressed by the continued poor harvests, prayed for blessings from the gods of the Izu Seven Islands, and soon countless saury fish washed up on the beach.

Priests served saury on top of rice and served it to the people, and since then, it has become a custom to treat saury cooked rice at the annual autumn festival. It was around the end of the Edo period that this cooked rice transformed into the current ``sanma sushi.'' When the shogunate ordered a reverberatory furnace in Kawachi, Shimoda city to be moved to Nirayama by a gambler, the potter in Izu was struggling to feed a large number of laborers, and the potter took a cue from takikomimeshi made with saury. I thought of Tesanma Musubi. After a few days, Sanma Musubi took on a sour taste and developed an indescribable flavor, so sweet and sour vinegar was later used as a seasoning, and it is said that Kansai-style pressed sushi-style Sanma sushi was born. Even now, it is an indispensable dish for autumn festivals and celebrations in Shirahama. A characteristic of Shirahama's Sanma Sushi is that each family has a taste that has been passed down from generation to generation, and each one has a slightly different taste.

[Contact]
Izu Shirahama Tourism Association
https://www.izu-shirahama.jp/
TEL: 0558-22-5240 / FAX: 0558-22-5280