Sashimi Food Culture

The eating of sashimi (chopped fish) was recorded in China as early as the Zhou Dynasty, dating back to the fifth year of King Xuan of the Zhou Dynasty (823 B.C.). An inscription on an excavated bronze vessel, the Ruoxi A Plate, states that the Zhou division met the long-snout tribe at Peng Nga (in present-day Baishui County, Shaanxi Province) and returned home in triumph. General Yin Jifu gave a private banquet to Zhang Zhong and other friends, and the main dish was roasted turtle with slices of raw carp. Poetry. Xiao Ya. June" recorded this incident: "drink the friends, gun turtle chopped carp", "chopped carp" is raw carp. Rituals" and: "chopping, spring with onions, autumn with mustard", "Analects" in the chopping food "shall not be its sauce does not eat" account, so the pre-Qin era of chopped fish when the addition of onions, mustard sauce to seasoning. Mengzi. The next" also mentions chopped fish. Zeng Li was fond of goat jujubes, but Zeng Zi could not bear to eat goat jujubes. Gongsun Chou asked, "Which is better, chopped food or goat dates?" Mencius said, "Chopped food!" Gongsun Chou said, "Then why did Zeng Zi eat chopped food but not goat dates?" Mencius said, "The popular food is the same, but the goat dates are unique. The name is not taboo, the name is the same, the name is unique." This is also the origin of the idiom of "popular", which originally meant popular and delicious, and later referred to the popularity of the work and familiar.

Sashimi is one of the most distinctive features of Japanese cuisine. According to records, sashimi became fashionable in Japan in the 14th century A.D., when the word "chop" was used to summarize sashimi and sashimi-like foods. At that time, chopped fish and meat were either raw or soaked in vinegar, and sashimi was only one of the techniques used to cook chopped fish. It was not until the 15th century, when soy sauce was introduced and widely used in Japan, that sashimi was gradually dipped in soy sauce.

The term "sashimi" originated in Japan during the Muromachi period (1392-1573). There are many explanations for the origin of the word:

One explanation is that "sashimi" is a transcription of tachimi, which is the Japanese name for a sword (言元梯)

One explanation is that "sashimi" is a transcription of tachi. （One explanation is that tachimi is a transcription of tachi, which is a Japanese word for sword ("言元梯")

One explanation is that tachimi is a transcription of tachi, which is a Japanese word for sword. (Dusk Essay) The word for "left" is sa, and the word for "in" is shin. The word "body" is mostly interpreted as meat.

Another explanation is that "刺" means to skewer and is named after the gills of the fish, while "身" is the name for the gills.

Another explanation is that "sashimi" means "covering" and is named after the thinly sliced fish that can be covered when making sushi.

On December 21, 1954, Guo Moruo published "Sashimi Theory" in the Japanese newspaper Asahi Shimbun. According to Guo, sashimi comes from the Chinese word "sansho". Sashimi may have been served with soy sauce, vinegar and ginger juice. He says that the pronunciation of samsham (san seepage) is sashimi because the Japanese cannot pronounce the nasal sound, just as the Japanese pronounce kam as ama and am as yami. This explanation is very much in line with Guo Moruo's very romantic and hyper-imaginative character, but unfortunately, no concrete material has been found to support his claim.

What is more valuable is the Japanese Yasuda Tokutaro's in the "Tensun clan" schedule, he pointed out that: "meat" in the Malayan Suman language is called sich, in the Sakay language is sach, in the Himalayan region of Repucha language is man. sich, sach can be the same as in sashimi. sich, sach can be related to sashi in sashimi and man can be related to mi in sashimi. He suggests that there are sources of Japanese sashi and mi in both languages. Early names for sashimi

The earliest record of sashimi consumption in China dates back to Zhao Ye's Wu Yue Chun Qiu (The Spring and Autumn Annals of Wu Yue) of the Eastern Han Dynasty, according to Wu Yue Chun Qiu (The Spring and Autumn Annals of Wu Yue). Helu Neizhuan (阖闾内传), after the Wu army broke through the Ying capital of Chu, King Helu of Wu set up a banquet of chopped fish to comfort Wu Zixu, and only then did chopped fish become available in the land of Wu, in the year 505 BCE. Although much of the content of the Spring and Autumn Annals of Wu Yue comes from folklore and is not entirely credible, it can be used as a reference in the absence of other information.

Qin Han, Wei Jin, North and South Dynasties, after the Qin and Han dynasties, cattle, sheep and other domestic animals and beasts of the chopping gradually rare, chopping is usually chopped fish, but also derived from a "chopped" word refers to the sliced raw fish. "Chopped" and "chopped" are often used interchangeably, but should not be confused with the word "chowder," which means to process food over a fire.

During the Eastern Han Dynasty, Chen Deng, the governor of Guangling, loved to eat chopped raw fish, and because of overconsumption, he became seriously ill with intestinal infections and parasites, and recovered only after being treated by the famous doctor Hua Tuo, but he continued to eat sliced raw fish after his recovery, and eventually died because of his craving for sliced raw fish.

Chopped fish was a very common food in ancient times, and Ying Shao of the Eastern Han Dynasty included customs and oddities in his "Customs", one of which reads: "Zhu'a (today's Zhu'a Town, Qihe County, Shandong Province) does not eat raw fish". This represents Ying Shao's belief that not eating raw fish is a strange custom. This custom of the Zhu'a people persisted until the Sui dynasty, and is recorded in the Sui Shu. Geographical Records.

Cao Zhi of the Wei Dynasty of the Three Kingdoms also liked to eat raw fish, and in his Ming Du Zhi, he wrote: "chopped carp, rich tire shrimp, shelled turtle and sizzling paws of bear," dipping raw fish in small shrimp paste and eating it.

"Chopped" means raw shredded fish and meat, or shredded fish and meat soaked in vinegar. At that time, sashimi (sashimi) was only a cooking technique for chopped fish. It was only after soy sauce was introduced and widely used in Japan that sashimi developed into a name for something like sashimi.

Writing form of sashimi

The word "sashimi" is written in the form of the kanji character for training; it was also commonly written in kana in olden times (e.g., October 1 of the 15th year of the civilization of the Goyudenjo Diary, 1483 A.D.). The first two syllables, sashi, are written with the character for "thorn". The first two syllables of sashi were written with the word "sashimi", which was initially written in an unstable manner, and in ancient times the words "指味", "差身", "差味", "差酢", "刺子", and "刺躬", which are all pronounced sashimi, were used, and more often than not "指身", "指身", were used (see Suzuka Ichiban (The Records of the Suzuka Family, 6th year of the reign of the Eunaga emperor in 1399). ). The word "finger" is also pronounced sashi; later on, when it was thought that it was not related to "finger", but to use a knife, the word "stab" was found, which has the side of a standing knife, and sashi was also interpreted as "to cut a platter" and "to cut and arrange". This is a bit of a common etymology. The latter syllable, mi, is more often written as "body," meaning meat. As for the use of "flavor", it is clearly a matter of assuming the meaning of "sound".

Names of sashimi

Sashimi was originally used in the Kanto region, and is sometimes called "uchimi" ("uchimi" meaning "cover") and "tsukemono" ("tsukemono" meaning "cover"). It is also sometimes called "uchimi" ("tsukurimi", meaning platter.) and "tsukurimi" ("sakubi", meaning platter.). It is a Kansai term, generally known simply as tsukuri; it can also be called tsukuritoiu).

As for the word "sashimi", there are many dialectal variations in Japan, such as sashin and shyashin in Toyama Prefecture, sasumi in Hachijojima, and shyashimi in Shizuoka and Tottori Prefectures.