Sea Bream

Ken Nishizawa

Former President of Kawagoe Mita-kai, 1964 Commerce

At Kawagoe Hikawa Shrine, the guardian shrine of our town Kawagoe and widely known as a deity of matchmaking, two types of sea bream-shaped fortune slips (omikuji) are popular. One is the general "Ichinen An-tai Mikuji" (A Year of Peace and Sea Bream Fortune), and the other is the "Ai-tai Mikuji" (Love Sea Bream Fortune), which specializes in romantic fulfillment. In both cases, the fortune slip is inserted into the tail of a papier-mâché sea bream.

What is unique is how you draw them. It takes the form of fishing for the many sea bream swimming in a tank using a small bamboo fishing rod. Worshipers take aim and work hard to catch the sea bream they want, but it is quite difficult. The line does not hang exactly where you intend. When I asked Chief Priest Yamada of Hikawa Shrine about this, he replied, "That itself is the divine will." I see. I used to think that one's fortune was measured by the content of the chosen slip, but the very fact of "which fortune you are able to catch" is already a connection guided by the gods!

According to Japanese mythology, Susanoo, the deity enshrined at Hikawa Shrine, was originally a god tasked with ruling the seas. Please come and enjoy sea bream fishing in Saitama, a landlocked prefecture.

Kotaro Kashiwabara

Chairman of Japan Gastronomy Association, 1986 Economics

In Akasaka, there is a kappo restaurant called "Tsuyama," famous for being loved by former Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi, who is also a Keio University alumni. While many kappo restaurants these days only offer omakase courses, Tsuyama stubbornly sticks to an a la carte menu. I appreciate being able to order what I like, and I have been going there since I was young.

The signature dish to end the meal there is Tai Chazuke (sea bream over rice with tea/broth). It became famous after being featured in the media because former Prime Minister Koizumi loved it so much. I love it too, and even when I'm debating how to finish my meal, I always end up choosing the Tai Chazuke.

Tai Chazuke is made by marinating fresh wild sea bream in a sauce and eating it as chazuke. However, the sauce at Tsuyama is so delicious that I usually put two-thirds of it on top of rice to eat as a bowl (donburi) first, and then turn the rest into chazuke. They add carefully ground sesame to a soy sauce base, and the Tsuyama style is to add a pickled plum (umeboshi) to that. This adds a refreshing touch to the sesame sauce, which can tend to be heavy, creating just the right balance. While many restaurants use sencha or dashi for the final chazuke, Tsuyama uses hojicha. This has a wonderful aroma that makes me feel, "I've truly come to Tsuyama."

Koji Kurosaki

Representative Director of Kurosaki Sengyo Co., Ltd., 2000 Commerce

In Toyama, many red sea bream are caught during the one-month period from April to May. These plump red sea bream, which follow the firefly squid, make one feel the transition of the seasons from spring to early summer.

The red sea bream caught by fixed nets located about 10 to 20 minutes from the fishing port are landed early in the morning, shipped in a fresh state, and can be eaten on the same day.

However, due to rising seawater temperatures caused by global warming, things that should normally be caught are not being caught. For example, mahi-mahi, which is in season in summer, is caught in fixed nets even in December. Yellowtail (buri) that are truly "Kan-buri" (winter yellowtail) are being caught in Hokkaido in October. Such things are happening every year.

How will the red sea bream be this year? Rather than lamenting that things used to be a certain way, I believe the most important thing is to pursue the seasonal flavors of today.

Please come to Toyama and taste the seasonal flavors of today.

Ryujiro Hagiwara

Teacher at Keio Yochisha Elementary School

At Yochisha, when a class wins at Sports Day or an intra-school tournament, the homeroom teacher treats the students to Taiyaki (fish-shaped cake). This custom was started by Mr. Hiromichi Kawamura, also known as Kawasen. When I asked senior alumni who were Kawasen's students about its origins, I found out that he started distributing Taiyaki around 1955.

At first, he distributed them whenever there was something celebratory in the class, but it seems it later changed into a reward for winning at Sports Day. Kawasen would distribute about 250 Taiyaki in total to his class—five for each household and seven for each relay runner, including substitutes. It was all Kawasen's treat, and his grand generosity was very characteristic of his Edokko (native Tokyoite) spirit.

During the war, Kawasen was in charge of food procurement for the Yochisha evacuation school. Even when the world became affluent, he never allowed a single grain of rice or a single drop of soup to be left over from school lunches. Regarding the Taiyaki, he would tell us to cut them up and share them with the whole family, and that we should be the last ones to eat what remained. One of Kawasen's famous quotes is, "Tradition should not be protected, it should be created," but I feel it is okay to keep protecting the Yochisha Taiyaki culture.