“The ocean has thousands of creatures.”
Atypical Seafood Extravaganza in Oki Islands, Japan
“So, you eat Sushi every day, huh?” This is the kind of question I got when I lived in the United States. Sushi has become so popular outside of Japan that you can even find a Sushi place in Nuuk, the capital of Greenland. Nowadays, virtually everybody in the world knows that Japanese people eat lots of fish.
Well, I don’t eat Sushi every day. However, I can say that my fisherman friends in Oki Islands eat sashimi (sliced raw fish) every day. It’s not just fish though. There are different seafoods available there. In this article, I explore food cultures of Oki Islands to shed light on a lesser-known type of Japanese food: rural fishermen’s everyday meals. I visited Okinoshima Town several times between 2009 and 2012 as part of my master's thesis research. This article is based on my fieldwork in these years.
Oki Islands are located approximately 40 km north of Shimane Peninsula. They consist of small islands in the middle of the Sea of Japan. In the Kojiki (aka Records of Ancient Matters), which chronicles the earliest history of Japan, they were mentioned as the third island(s) that came into existence due to the activities of Izanagi and Izanami, mystical founders of the Japanese archipelago. That means the Islands are part of Japan at least by the year 712.
Mr. Ishida grew up in Nakamura, Okinoshima Town, the northernmost community in Oki Islands. Even though he had spent some time in Osaka working as a truck driver, he lived most of his life in this coastal village. Mr. Ishida operates an aquaculture of oysters, while his son dives to shoot fish for dinner. His brothers and relatives go out to the ocean for fishing with gillnets or kanagi, a kind of fishing technique where one looks through the bottom of the ocean to pick up shellfish with a specially made goggle and trident. There is also a fixed net operation in the nearby community. During the summer time, the villagers take off with their boat for squid fishing. Fish, shellfish, and seaweeds are everywhere, and the supply of seafood keeps coming because relatives and neighbors share their catch among themselves.
In this community, it is very difficult to spend a day without eating seafood. When Mr. Ishida jokingly said “I am happy when I got no fish,” he meant he does not hate to have a meat dish once in a while. Just like his joke suggests, everyday meals consist of a variety of seafood. Here is a typical dinner of Ishida family in the picture below.
Yellowtail sashimi (lower left) was almost ubiquitous at Ishida family’s dinner table. Out of 11 dishes in the picture, 5 were wakame seaweed dishes prepared in different styles (dark-green dishes except for boiled spinach in the middle). They just harvested wakame from their aquaculture operation. That’s why they dominated the foodscape on this particular day. Marinated sea cucumber (bottom right) was also a welcome addition to the diet. Everything on the table on that day came either from the nearby ocean or the villagers’ field except for the beer!
Then, you might see a dish in the upper middle side of the picture. What on earth is this?
Maybe Spanish or Portuguese readers would know. It is boiled goose barnacle. In Japanese, it is called kame-no-te, literally meaning “turtle’s hand”, a name apparently coming from its shape. Goose barnacles are a crustacean found in intertidal zones. In Spain or Portugal, they are considered as expensive delicacies. On the other hand, in Oki Islands, they are a casual snack that goes well with Asahi beer, Mr. Ishida’s favorite. Unlike its name, kame-no-te didn’t taste like turtles (Sorry, I never ate turtles before, so I don’t know for sure). It had a sort of shrimp-ish taste because it is crustacean after all.
If you are thirsty for beer and looking for a good beer snack, you might feel like following Ishida Family to harvest goose barnacles (Note: You might need harvest permits to collect goose barnacles in some areas). As mentioned, they live in intertidal zones. This means that you might end up standing in the middle of the ocean where you can see waves coming in and out right by you. They took off with a boat and landed at a rock reef to collect goose barnacles, shellfish, and seaweeds.
Of course, there are different kinds of fish you can eat in Oki Islands: Yellowtail, Thread-sail filefish, Marbled rockfish and so on. If you can wake up early and venture to help gillnet fishermen to pick out fish from the net, chances are they give you a few fish for lunch. This is how I got hooked up with filefish liver soup.
However, as you can already see, shellfish, seaweeds and crustacean are also integral parts of Oki people’s diets. Since Mr. Ishida operates oyster aquaculture, oyster barbeque and oyster cocktail are not necessarily a festive meal. Turban shells (sazae in Japanese) are the favorite ingredients of curry for the locals. If you ever get tired of eating sazae raw every day, I recommend making sazae curry. Chunky texture and ocean flavor unexpectedly go well with spicy curry. Niina and other intertidal shellfish are excellent ingredients to be boiled and mixed with hot steamed rice. Then, behold! You can eat sea hares (locally known as beko), too. At least, the ones people eat in Oki Islands are not poisonous. Beko can be boiled with soy sauce and sugar.
Mr. Ishida once said to me, “the ocean has thousands of creatures.” If you go to a Sushi restaurant next time, please remind yourself that there are not just salmon or tuna that Japanese people eat. Unfortunately, most of the Japanese restaurants in your neighborhood don’t serve sazae curry, or boiled kame-no-te with your choice of Japanese beer. You can always come visit Oki Islands yourself to savor the bounty from the Sea of Japan. Oops, don’t forget to grab a bottle of locally brewed Okihomare, too!
