Sushi is NOT raw fish

Yesterday, I had someone arguing with me, trying to convince me that Sushi is raw fish, where as I tried to explain that in actual fact Sashimi is raw fish and that Sushi is the vingared rice. But no, he would not except that. He went on about how he visits Sushi restaurants and that it was the fish that made it Sushi saying that the Japanese for rice is Gohan. This is true, Gohan is Japanese for rice, but this refers to plain cooked rice. Anyway, Instead of arguing with some one I decided just to agree and let him go happy. It would be pointless even trying to explain some of the history of Sushi and the Kanji that means Sushi. But I thought I would do a quick history in this blog post, so here it goes:

Originally fermented fish was preserved using salt and vingared rice. Seemingly having it's roots, like a lot of things in Japan, from China. It seems that this process of preservation goes back to about BC 200, well at least the Chinese characters for Sushi go back that far. Anyway, perserving the fermented fish in salt and vingared rice was later used to transport fish between Mainland China and Japan. Sushi actually refered to the storage method, which was the salt and vingared rice.
Fast forward to the Edo Period in Japan...why...well it is during that period we have the first account of eating the vingared rice along side / with the preserved fish. Until then the rice was not eaten and was simply thrown away. This was the bases for what we now know has Sushi. It seems that the word Sushi may have it's roots in an archaic grammatical term which is no longer used meaning 'It's sour' referring to the sour taste of the vinegared rice.
Today there are many different types of Sushi and none of them resemble the original Sushi. Some Sushi has been created outside of Japan, the California Roll, for example.
Let's look how the Kanji has developed.


SA. This Kanji is no longer in use and it means Stored Fish. North China.



KIN. This Kanji is no longer in use and it means Stored Fish. South China.



SA. This Kanji is no longer in use and it means Stored Fish. South China.



SA. This Kanji is no longer in use and it means Stored Fish. North China.


SA / SUSHI. In Japan, previously well used in the Edo era in particular as 'Sushi.'
The Kanji on the Left = Fish. The Kanji on the Right = Vinegar.



SHI / SUSHI. In Use. It seems to mean only Sushi now. But the Kanji reads 'Delicious Fish.'


This Kanji has no relation to fish, rice or any other food stuffs. This Kanji is just phonetic. The first Kanji is 'Su' and means Longevity / Life Span. The second Kanji is 'Shi' and means 'Administrator / Official. But it seems to becoming popular in use and a lot of Sushi Restaurants use it.

So therefore, even though all the above Kanji, except the last one used for Phonics, have the kanji for fish in them (魚) they are all, apart from 鮨, refer to the storing or the preservation of the fish, (which used to be fermented fish.)

The word Sushi in fact refers to the vinagared rice that is used.
酢 = 'Su' and means Vinegar　
し = 'Shi' and comes from the Japanese Word for rice 'meshi' 飯

Sushi = Vingared Rice.

But if you really want to argue the fact that Sushi is fish then you could say it is preserved fermented fish, not raw (Sashimi) fish. I am sure no one, not even the Japanese, would want to eat fermented fish these days.