Hanaya Yohei (華屋与兵衛 or 花屋與兵衛; 1799–1858) was a Japanese restaurateur and chef who is generally credited as the

inventor An invention is a unique or novel device, method, composition, idea or process. An invention may be an improvement upon a machine, product, or process for increasing efficiency or lowering cost. It may also be an entirely new concept. If an ...

Tokyo Tokyo (; ja, 東京, , ), officially the Tokyo Metropolis ( ja, 東京都, label=none, ), is the capital and largest city of Japan. Formerly known as Edo, its metropolitan area () is the most populous in the world, with an estimated 37.468 ...

-style ('' Edomae-zushi''; 江戸前寿司) ''nigiri'' sushi at the end of the

Edo period The or is the period between 1603 and 1867 in the history of Japan, when Japan was under the rule of the Tokugawa shogunate and the country's 300 regional '' daimyo''. Emerging from the chaos of the Sengoku period, the Edo period was characteriz ...

. He is also regarded as the inventor of modern

sushi is a Japanese dish of prepared , usually with some sugar and salt, accompanied by a variety of , such as seafood, often raw, and vegetables. Styles of sushi and its presentation vary widely, but the one key ingredient is "sushi rice," also ...

that is widely recognized around the world. He was the founder of the Hanaya sushi restaurant in Edo.

Life

Hanaya was born in Reiganjima, Edo (present-day Shinkawa, Tokyo). In 1810, Hanaya established a sushi restaurant, Hanaya, in Honjo, Edo (present-day Honjo, Tokyo). He developed a new type of sushi, ''nigirizushi'', which was different from the already existing ''

oshizushi is a Japanese dish of prepared , usually with some sugar and salt, accompanied by a variety of , such as seafood, often raw, and vegetables. Styles of sushi and its presentation vary widely, but the one key ingredient is "sushi rice," als ...

'', in the early Bunsei era (1818-1830). Sushi at his time was made from freshly captured fish from the nearby

Tokyo Bay is a bay located in the southern Kantō region of Japan, and spans the coasts of Tokyo, Kanagawa Prefecture, and Chiba Prefecture. Tokyo Bay is connected to the Pacific Ocean by the Uraga Channel. The Tokyo Bay region is both the most populous ...

. This ruled out many of today's popular materials such as

salmon Salmon () is the common name for several list of commercially important fish species, commercially important species of euryhaline ray-finned fish from the family (biology), family Salmonidae, which are native to tributary, tributaries of the ...

roe Roe ( ) or hard roe is the fully ripe internal egg masses in the ovaries, or the released external egg masses, of fish and certain marine animals such as shrimp, scallop, sea urchins and squid. As a seafood, roe is used both as a cooked in ...

(''ikura''; イクラ). Even though Tokyo is a coastal city, food safety was still a concern before the invention of

refrigeration The term refrigeration refers to the process of removing heat from an enclosed space or substance for the purpose of lowering the temperature.International Dictionary of Refrigeration, http://dictionary.iifiir.org/search.phpASHRAE Terminology, ht ...

. To prevent spoilage, Hanaya either slightly cooked or marinated the fish in

soy sauce Soy sauce (also called simply soy in American English and soya sauce in British English) is a liquid condiment of Chinese origin, traditionally made from a fermented paste of soybeans, roasted grain, brine, and '' Aspergillus oryzae'' or ''Asp ...

vinegar Vinegar is an aqueous solution of acetic acid and trace compounds that may include flavorings. Vinegar typically contains 5–8% acetic acid by volume. Usually, the acetic acid is produced by a double fermentation, converting simple sugars to et ...

. It was quite reasonable for people to dislike the fatty belly meat of

tuna A tuna is a saltwater fish that belongs to the tribe Thunnini, a subgrouping of the Scombridae (mackerel) family. The Thunnini comprise 15 species across five genera, the sizes of which vary greatly, ranging from the bullet tuna (max length: ...

because it would decompose very quickly. Hanaya marinated the lean red meat in soy sauce. Then he served the sliced fish on vinegared rice balls that are large by today's standard. His sushi was totally different from today's "raw fish" stereotype. Hanaya died at the age of 60 in 1858. Hanaya's cookery was a departure from Japanese eating habits of the time. In the early years, a

chef A chef is a trained professional cook and tradesman who is proficient in all aspects of food preparation, often focusing on a particular cuisine. The word "chef" is derived from the term ''chef de cuisine'' (), the director or head of a kitche ...

only made sushi part-time. Then, slowly, inexpensive sushi stands (''yatai''; 屋台) emerged. After the government outlawed these questionable food stands, sushi restaurants (''ryōtei;'' 料亭) became mainstream. Today, relatively inexpensive

conveyor belt sushi , also called rotation sushi, is a type of sushi restaurant common in Japan. In Australasia, it is also known as a sushi train. Plates serving the sushi are placed on a rotating conveyor belt that winds through the restaurant and moves past eve ...

(''kaiten-zushi''; 回転寿司) has become popular.

References

External links

Hanaya Yohei's sushi

(華屋与兵衛　謎の生涯; in Japanese)
Hanayayohei-Japanese restaurant
Japanese chefs Sushi 1799 births 1858 deaths People from Tokyo {{Food-bio-stub

Life

See also

References

External links