Special Contribution: Southern Bluefin Tuna and Mackerel at Yaizu Port

Shizuoka Prefecture is a treasure trove of food ingredients, but the core of these is fishing resources. According to the prefecture, Shizuoka's coastline is over 500 km long, with roughly half of it made up of the Izu Peninsula, one third made up of the Suruga Bay coastline from Osezaki to Omaezaki, and one sixth made up of the Enshu Nada Sea west of Omaezaki. The fish caught and the fishing methods vary from region to region, and the characteristics of the fishing ports are also different for each region.

The second stop on our trip to visit fish in Shizuoka is Yaizu Fishing Port, which has a market for southern bluefin tuna along the Suruga Bay coast. Yaizu City has three fishing ports: Yaizu Port, Kogawa Port, and Oigawa Port on the left bank of the Oi River estuary. Yaizu Port has a long history of involvement with fishing, with the landing of bonito in particular becoming more popular during the Edo period, and Yaizu Port is now ranked number one in Japan for the amount of bonito landed. The tradition of bonito fishing is said to date back to the time of the Engishiki, an encyclopedic book from the Heian period. Since the Meiji period, the port has grown as a tuna landing port, and is now one of the top in Japan for tuna landings.

The tuna on this day was provided by four companies. Most of the ships were registered in Japan. All of the tuna was caught in the Southern Hemisphere, from the southern Indian Ocean to the Atlantic Ocean west of Cape Town. The tuna auction area was about the size of a small school gymnasium, with a high ceiling. It was cool and refreshing, likely due to the air conditioning used to maintain the freshness of the tuna.

There were already 102 southern bluefin tuna lined up at the auction site. The fish ranged in weight from 25kg to 90kg. The guts and gills had been removed, the tails cut off, and the fish were frozen, leaving a pure white, spindle-like appearance that gave off no semblance of a living organism. Part of the body near the tail had been sliced ​​and placed on the ground. It was a familiar sight on television. The frozen part had thawed, revealing the distinctive red muscle of southern bluefin tuna. The slices were tagged with colored ribbons to distinguish the place of origin and company. Brokers began to hook the tails of the slices with their hooked hands and observe the texture of the flesh. It seemed possible to tell the fat content and texture of the flesh from the color.

Soon the auction began. The middlemen bid one after another in unison with the shouts of the staff member standing on the stepladder. Within 20 minutes, the 102 southern bluefin tuna had all been sold.

We head to Kogawa Port, a few hundred meters south of Yaizu Port. Kogawa Port is one of three ports in Yaizu City, and the three fishery associations are divided according to the species of fish they mainly deal with. The fishery associations in Kogawa mainly deal with mackerel, caught using a fishing method called "tamo scoop net fishing."

Depending on the season, both chub mackerel and sesame mackerel can be caught. Recently, these have been processed in various ways under the initiative of the fishing association, and are also available as hometown tax donation items. Yaizu mackerel is also processed into mackerel sushi.

In addition to mackerel, a variety of fish species caught in fixed nets are landed at Ogawa Port. When we visited the fishing port that day, it was almost 9 o'clock, so the auction had already ended, but in the boxes where the major brokers had not yet come to collect the fish, there were several fish such as Japanese sea bream, red sea bream, and red gurnard packed on ice.
　Back at the office, we talked about processed foods. Mackerel can be processed into koji-zuke (pickled in koji), miso-zuke (pickled in miso), and dried sesame mackerel, but the traditional food has been around for a long time: mackerel sushi.

One of the initiatives the Fisheries Cooperative Association started this year is canned mackerel. The standard size cans are 190g boiled mackerel, and the factory is in Hachinohe. There was no canning culture in Yaizu.

*Canned mackerel has only recently been produced, but canned tuna and other seafood are well known.
During the Taisho era, Engineer Yoshio Murakami of the Shizuoka Prefectural Fisheries Experimental Station came up with the idea of ​​canning albacore tuna, which was in abundance in Shizuoka Prefecture, by preserving it in oil. In 1929, Engineer Murakami used the training grounds of Yaizu Fisheries School (now Yaizu Fisheries High School) and, with the cooperation of the manufacturing department staff and students, produced 400 dozen cans, which were exported to the United States. This was the beginning of canned tuna in oil in Japan. It is still produced using the same method today. It is a traditional canned food from Yaizu Fisheries High School.

In terms of area, Oigawa Port is much smaller than the other two ports. I was able to speak to Ooba Yuichi, a councilor at the Oigawa Port Fisheries Cooperative Association.

The main products are raw whitebait and sakura shrimp. For both, Mochimune Port and Yui Port are much better known both within and outside the prefecture, and it is likely that few people outside the prefecture are familiar with the name Oigawa Port. However, Oigawa Port actually boasts a considerable amount of landings. There are two fishing seasons for sakura shrimp, in spring and autumn. They are called spring fishing and autumn fishing, with the spring fishing season running from late March to early June and the autumn fishing season running from late October to late December. Although sakura shrimp themselves live along the coast from spring to autumn, the fishing season is divided into two due to the summer being a closed season. Whitebait are young fish of anchovies and pilchards, with pilchards being the main fish in the spring and anchovies being the main fish from summer onwards. When I asked why I felt that whitebait at this time of year (October) was tough and not very tasty, Ooba replied with a look of understanding, "It's because sardines are firmer and softer than anchovies."

I was treated to a bowl of kakiage rice, which consisted of three-dimensionally fried shrimp tempura that you pour the special sauce over yourself.

In the afternoon, we visited the hotel "nanvan Yaizu" near the Yaizu Interchange on the Tomei Expressway.

Many of the hotel's guests are from outside the prefecture, including people who come to Yaizu to purchase tuna and bonito, people traveling around the country on business trips, and people who come by truck for deliveries or construction work.For breakfast, tuna dishes, mainly tuna from Yaizu Port, are served exclusively to guests staying overnight.

For this reason, the dining space is also treated as a lounge.

Here, we were given special orders of tuna chazuke and tuna rice bowl.
Tuna chazuke is not on the menu, but is a recommended breakfast dish that is apparently made to order.

*Meals are only available to guests staying at the hotel and reservations are required.

The last place we visited that day was "Iwase", a restaurant that specializes in mackerel. The current owner is Tomoko Iwasaki, the seventh generation owner. The restaurant was founded in 7, at the end of the Edo period. It is a long-established restaurant that is approaching 1832 years old. It is not far from the sea, and is probably in the old town area.

This is a shop that has been making salted mackerel for a long time, and they have been making mackerel sushi in the same style. Salted mackerel is marinated in vinegar, topped with vinegared rice, and made into a sushi roll, and the preparation method is almost the same as that of Kansai. The vinegared rice feels sharper than that of Kansai.

Looking at the wholesale ledger of my great-grandfather, the fourth-generation head of the family, Kiyoichi, the "front" is written as bonito and the "back" as mackerel. This means that they handled mackerel from November to April. Around the Showa era, they started selling salted mackerel. Since the time of Tomoko's fourth-generation owner, Kiyoichi, they have been selling salted mackerel at the salted and dried market in Kyoto, and the shipping book from 11 reads "Kyoto ○ is."

He remembers that when he was young, the previous owner would go to Yaizu Station (now JR) to ship salted mackerel. One of his customers was Funatsuru, whose building still stands today in Kiyamachi Gojoagaru along the Kamo River. However, on paper, the salted mackerel was listed as being sent to the Kyoto Salted and Dried Fish Wholesale Cooperative, and he said he did not know the name of the store to which it was actually delivered. There is also a record of the owner making a trip to Hashimoto City, Wakayama Prefecture to collect payments, and Hashimoto is known as the home of persimmon leaf sushi.

In this way, we can see that the culture of mackerel sushi in Kyoto and Nara has entered a new era by involving a new production area, Yaizu, connected by a new means of railways, since the era of mass production due to modernization in the Meiji era could not be met by the narrow supply chain of Wakasa and Wakayama. From now on, it seems important to create a culture where Yaizu mackerel sushi is eaten in Yaizu.

The photographer who accompanied us on the interview introduced the contents of the interview on his blog.

Please take a look at this as well.
https://53-73.com/blog/archives/2726.html

Photo: Yoshihiko Konan