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 Japan around the Yayoi period (early Neolithic–early
Iron Age).[1] In the Muromachi period (1336–1573), people began to eat the rice as well as the fish.[2]
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.[3]
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.[4][5][6]
Early history[edit]
The earliest form of sushi, a dish today known as narezushi, has its probable origin with paddy fields
along the Mekong River of what is now south-western China, Myanmar, Laos, and Thailand. Narezushi in
ancient China is first documented around the 4th century, when the Han Chinese migrated south to
adopt this food from the Baiyue.[1]
The prototypical narezushi is made by lacto-fermenting fish with salt and rice in order to control
putrefaction. In Japan the dish's distribution overlaps with the introduction of wet-field rice cultivation
during the Yayoi period.[1][7] Passages relate ancient Japanese people with legendary King Shao Kang
ruling over the Yangtze delta:[8]
Men great and small, all tattoo their faces and decorate their bodies with designs. From olden times
envoys who visited the Chinese Court called themselves "grandees" [大夫]. A son of the ruler Shao Kang
of Xia, when he was enfeoffed as lord of Kuaiji, cut his hair and decorated his body with designs in order
to avoid the attack of serpents and dragons. The Wa, who are fond of diving into the water to get fish
and shells, also decorated their bodies in order to keep away large fish and waterfowl. Later, however,
the designs became merely ornamental.
During the third century, Chinese travelers in Japan recorded examples of Wu traditions including ritual
teeth-pulling, tattooing and carrying babies on backs. Other records at the time show that Japan already
had the same customs recognized today. These include clapping during prayers, eating from wooden
trays and eating raw fish (also a traditional custom of Jiangsu and Zhejiang before pollution made this
impractical).[9]
Narezushi appears in the Chinese dictionary in the second century CE as the character sa (鮓, pickled fish
with salt and rice),[10] which was during a period in which the Han Chinese were expanding south of the
Yangtze river, adopting the food from the non-Han peoples.[1] Kuai, sashimi, and hoe can be traced back
to Dongyi, a pre-Han Baiyue cultural area in East China. Confucius was born near present-day Nanxin
Town, Qufu, Shandong, China, and he was known to have enjoyed eating raw meat.[11]
Today's style of nigirizushi (握り寿司), consisting of an oblong mound of rice with a slice of fish draped
over it, became popular in Edo (contemporary Tokyo) in the 1820s or 1830s. One common story of the
origin of nigirizushi origins is of the chef Hanaya Yohei (1799–1858), who invented or perfected the
technique in 1824 at his shop in Ryōgoku.[12]