🍱 Saganbo no nitsuke

In Tochigi, a prefecture without a sea, people ate sharks, called saganbo (Spiny dogfish) and moro (mouse shark), as raw fish from the sea before refrigerators became widely available. This is because sharks store uric acid in their bodies, and when their lives run out, the uric acid decomposes into ammonia, which prevents decomposition and preservation. The saganbo distributed in Tochigi Prefecture were originally landed at a fishing port in Kitaibaraki, where they were sold at a higher price by removing the fins and skin and shipping the spindle-shaped meat inland to Tochigi Prefecture. The distinctive name "sagambo" comes from a dialect from Kitaibaraki to northeastern Tochigi Prefecture, where spindle-shaped icicles are called "sagabo" or "saganbo. According to the "Bussu-rui Shouko," a collection of dialects from all over Japan compiled during the Edo period, sharks are called "Sagabo" in the Utsunomiya area of Shimono-kuni, indicating that sharks have been eaten in Tochigi Prefecture for a long time.