Thin strips of fish (bonito or mackerel) salted and dried in wind and sun until hard as wood and intensely flavored. They are nibbled as-is at sea, or soaked to flavor a broth. The journey made edible.

Why this dish? Legend says that Jingū led her fleet across the Korea Strait while pregnant, slipping a stone (chinkai-seki) into her belt to delay childbirth. Such a crossing required non-perishable food: fish hardened by salt and sun, ancestor of katsuobushi, was the ration of sailors and warriors.

When you cut through the sea toward a distant land, you need provisions that neither water nor time can spoil. I carried a cold stone against my loins to hold the child, and in the holds, this fish hard as pebbles. Slice it thin, rub it with salt in full hands, then give it to the salt wind and sun until it sounds hollow. At sea, we gnaw it thus; on land, we let it yield its soul in hot water to warm the men. That is how a fleet crosses without faltering.

How it was made : Before the noble fermentation of katsuobushi (a later development), fish was simply preserved by salting and prolonged drying: "katauo" (hard fish). Light, non-perishable and rich in umami, it was the ration for maritime and military expeditions of the archipelago.

The contemporary twist : Grated into fine shavings over a bowl of steaming rice with a few drops of soy sauce: the very first ancestor of the bonito flakes that dance on Japanese dishes.

Empress Jingu · Charactorium