🍱 Bouze no sugatazushi

During the autumn festival season, "tadasushi," a type of sushi made by leaving various types of fish in their original form, is often eaten in Tokushima. Sushi rice is wrapped with fish that have been cut open on their backs. In addition to horse mackerel and konoshiro (white croaker), the main fish used in this dish is bouze, which was once considered a luxury fish. Bouze is a name in the Tokushima dialect, and is also called ibodai, uboze, or shizu, a white-fleshed fish caught from summer to autumn. Boze itself is eaten throughout Japan as grilled, boiled, or open fish, but it is only in Tokushima Prefecture, where fresh bouze is readily available, that it is eaten as sashimi. The fresher the fish is, the tighter the flesh is, making it easier to prepare as sashimi. However, the catch of bouze itself is currently on the decline, and mackerel and saury are increasingly being used to make this dish.