History of sushi

The history of sushi (すし, 寿司, 鮨; pronounced [sɯɕiꜜ] or [sɯꜜɕi]) began with paddy fields, where fish was fermented with vinegar, salt and rice, after which the rice was discarded. The earliest form of the dish, today referred to as narezushi, was created in Southeast Asia from where it spread to surrounding countries. Narezushi spread to Japan around the Yayoi period (early Neolithic–early Iron Age). In the Muromachi period (1336–1573), people began to eat the rice as well as the fish. During the Edo period (1603–1867), vinegar rather than fermented rice began to be used. The dish has become a form of food strongly associated with Japanese culture.

The inventor of modern sushi is believed to be Hanaya Yohei, who invented nigiri-zushi, a type of sushi most known today, in which seafood is placed on hand-pressed vinegared rice, around 1824 in the Edo period. It was the fast food of the chōnin class in the Edo period.

The earliest form of sushi, a dish today known as narezushi, originated in Southeast Asia as a method of preserving freshwater fish. It likely developed in the Mekong River basin—modern-day Laos, Cambodia, and Thailand—and the Irrawaddy River basin in present-day Myanmar.

Narezushi was first documented in ancient China around the 4th century, when the Han Chinese migrated south and adopted the dish from the Baiyue, the original non-Han inhabitants of southern China, who were culturally related to modern Southeast Asians.

The technique involved lacto-fermenting fish with salt and rice to prevent spoilage. In Japan, narezushi spread with the introduction of wet-field rice cultivation during the Yayoi period.

The word for narezushi appears in Chinese records from the 2nd century CE as the character sa (鮓), meaning pickled fish with salt and rice.

In the Yōrō Code (養老律令, Yōrō-ritsuryō) of 718, the characters for "鮨" and "鮓" are written as a tribute to the Japanese imperial court, and although there are various theories as to what exactly this food was, it is possible that it referred to narezushi.

Until the early 19th century, sushi slowly changed and the Japanese cuisine changed as well. The Japanese started eating three meals a day, rice was boiled instead of steamed, and of large importance was the development of rice vinegar.