🍚 Hitokawa Sushi (Layered Pressed Sushi)

"Hitokawa sushi" is a pressed sushi prepared for gathering events often made in Gamou District Sakuragawa Village in Shiga Prefecture. Currently it moved to Higashi Oumi City, and is found in Sakuragawa-Nishi, Sakuragawa-Higashi and around Higashi Oumi around Aisho Town. Rice and ingredients are layered four or five in the sushi tub which can hold 2 "sho" of rice, then pressed to make box sushi. Various ingredients are used and it has many layers, so it looks gorgeous and colorful. It is called "Hitokawa sushi" because they take each layer one by one, like peeling when eating. "Hitokawa sushi" is prepared at auspicious occasions or gathering events because it is cooked for 20~40 servings at once. When they make it for memorial services or funerals, dried young sardines are not used and eggs are replaced to yuba (=tofu skin) to make the sushi vegan. In Shiga Prefecture, there is similar pressed sushi called "Ugawa-zushi" used kanpyo (dried gourd shavings) produced in Mizuguchi Town in Kouga City. Sushi prevailed everywhere in Japan has been passed down in Japanese food culture for a long time, and eaten various auspicious occasions like festivals, celebrations or rites of passage.