Short answer
The history of sushi begins with preservation, not cuisine. For centuries, fish was packed in cooked rice and left to ferment; the rice was thrown away and only the fish was eaten. Cooks gradually shortened the process, replaced fermentation with vinegar, and in early 19th-century Edo, today’s Tokyo, invented nigiri as fast food sold from street stalls.
Key takeaways
- Sushi began as a method of preservation: fish packed in rice and left to ferment for months, with the rice thrown away.
- The technique likely came from Southeast Asia through China, and probably reached Japan around the ninth century.
- Over centuries, the fermentation got shorter, until cooks in Edo replaced it with rice vinegar.
- Nigiri, a slice of fish pressed onto a ball of rice, appeared in Edo in the early 19th century as street food; Hanaya Yohei is often credited with it.
- Sushi moved indoors after the Great Kanto Earthquake of 1923, and reached the United States in 1966, in Los Angeles.
Today sushi is associated with precision, expensive counters and chefs who train for years. Its origins are humbler and much older: a practical way to keep fish from rotting in a world without refrigeration.
Fish kept in rice
The idea of preserving fish in rice is generally traced to Southeast Asia. A Chinese dictionary of the fourth century mentions salted fish placed in cooked rice, where it fermented, which may be the first time the idea of sushi appears in writing. The rice produced lactic acid as it fermented, and that acid kept the fish edible for months.
This early form is called narezushi. The rice was a tool, not food: when the fish was ready, it was discarded.
The long road in Japan
The technique probably reached Japan around the ninth century. The oldest surviving style is funazushi, made with carp from Lake Biwa, near Kyoto, and still produced today. For centuries it was a food for the upper classes.
Around the turn of the 15th century, during a period of civil war, cooks shortened the fermentation to about a month. The fish was eaten while still partly raw, and for the first time the rice was eaten with it. This style is known as mama-nare zushi, or raw nare-zushi.
Then came vinegar. In the 18th century, cooks in Edo, the new capital, began adding rice vinegar to speed things up, pressing fish and rice together in boxes for a couple of hours instead of fermenting them for weeks. Sushi was becoming something you could make in an afternoon.
Fast food in Edo
By the late 18th century, Edo was full of street stalls. A picture book from 1786 by the artist Utamaro shows sushi stalls in Ryogoku, Asakusa and other districts.
In the early 19th century, a new form replaced the pressed box sushi in Edo: a slice of fish laid on a small ball of vinegared rice, shaped by hand and eaten at once. This is nigiri, and the man most often credited with popularizing it is Hanaya Yohei. He sold from a stall before opening a shop in Ryogoku in 1824. His shop lasted more than a century, until 1930.
Nigiri was fast food in the literal sense. Customers stood at the stall, ate a few pieces and moved on. One piece cost a few coins, and the fish came from Edo Bay, which is why this style is still called Edomae, “in front of Edo”.
From stalls to restaurants
In September 1923, the Great Kanto Earthquake devastated Tokyo. One of its odd consequences was that land became cheaper, and many sushi sellers moved from carts and stalls into small restaurants. By the 1950s, sushi was served almost entirely indoors.
Refrigeration, long-distance shipping of fish and the growth of Japan’s postwar economy did the rest, turning sushi into a national food and then a luxury one.
Sushi reaches America
In 1966, Noritoshi Kanai and Harry Wolff opened Kawafuku in Little Tokyo, Los Angeles, the first restaurant to offer traditional nigiri to American customers. In 1970, Osho opened in Hollywood, the first sushi bar outside Little Tokyo. From there, sushi spread across the United States and much of the world, adapting as it went.
Three stages of sushi
| Stage | When | What was eaten |
|---|---|---|
| Narezushi | Earliest form, in Japan from around the 9th century | Only the fish, after months of fermentation |
| Mama-nare zushi | From around 1400 | Fish and rice together, after about a month |
| Vinegared sushi and nigiri | Edo, 18th and early 19th centuries | Fresh fish on vinegared rice, eaten at once |
What the story tells us
Each change in sushi’s history was about time. Months of fermentation became a month, then a few hours, then the minutes it takes to shape a piece of nigiri. A food designed to last as long as possible became a food designed to be eaten immediately. The constant was rice and fish, and the ingenuity of people who wanted to eat well with what they had.
Another dish born of necessity and local ingredients is paella, which you can follow in The Origin of Paella. The whole section is at Famous Foods.
Frequently asked questions
Where did sushi originate?
The technique of preserving fish in fermenting rice is generally traced to Southeast Asia and China, and probably reached Japan around the ninth century. Nigiri, the form most people know, was developed in Edo, now Tokyo, in the early 19th century.
Who invented nigiri sushi?
Hanaya Yohei is usually credited with popularizing nigiri in Edo in the 1820s, first from a stall and then from a shop he opened in 1824.
Was sushi originally raw fish?
No. The earliest sushi was fish fermented in rice for months. Fresh fish on vinegared rice came much later.
When did sushi come to the United States?
In 1966, when Kawafuku in Los Angeles’ Little Tokyo began serving traditional nigiri to American customers.