🍱 Gosaitzuke

The "Kashima Sea", which stretches from Oarai in Ibaraki Prefecture to Inubosaki in Chiba Prefecture, is an excellent fishing area where the "Oyashio" Current and "Kuroshio" Current collide. During the Showa period, both before and after the war, great numbers of sardines were caught in autumn and distributed to households. The sardines, which can be caught in large quantities, are pickled in salt from around November. Once they're fermented, they're pickled together with daikon radishes. “Gosaitzuke” has long been loved as a local hometown winter dish and was an important source of protein for commoners. As for the origin of the name, it's described in Hokota Culture No. 35 (A Study of the Etymology of “Gosaitzuke” and its Production Method by Katsusaburo Ishizaki). The small sardines with very little fat which were suitable for "gosaitzuke" were called “Kosai,” which later changed to “gosai.” Other than that, there are also various theories that it's called "gosaitzuke" because it's pickled by the second wife (gosai; gosaitzuke) or because it uses five ingredients (gosai). In the past each household had its own flavor of "gosaitzuke" and it was wildly popular, but in recent years the number of households making "gosaitzuke" has been decreasing due to the amount of time and effort involved in making it, and because the traditional way of making it cannot be used due to global warming. Also, "gosaitzuke" is now being made from Pacific saury because the sardine catch is decreasing and their appearance is poor due to a loss of shape.