From Narezushi to Nigiri: The Edo Fast-Food Revolution

How a months-long preservation method became a quick snack sold from street stalls in 1800s Tokyo.

Over centuries, Japanese cooks shortened the fermentation time. By the 1400s and 1500s, namanare sushi was eaten after a few days, rice and all. In the 1600s, cooks began adding vinegar to the rice so there was no need to wait for fermentation at all, creating hayazushi, or “fast sushi.”

Edo street food

In the busy city of Edo, now Tokyo, the chef Hanaya Yohei (1799–1858) is often credited with popularizing nigiri in the 1820s: a small hand-pressed block of vinegared rice topped with fish from Edo Bay, sold from stalls for people to eat on the go. Fish was often cured, marinated in soy sauce or lightly cooked, because there was no refrigeration.

Going global

After the Great Kantō Earthquake of 1923, many Edo-style sushi chefs moved around Japan, spreading nigiri nationwide. Refrigeration after World War II made raw fish practical, and sushi spread around the world in the late twentieth century.

Part of the Boston Made Reader’s special collection Courage, Conscience & Service. Written for the Reader and free to read here.