Kazunoko
[5] A technique for bleaching into uniform gold color was established, and the lucrative commodity earned the nickname of "yellow dia[mond]".
[7] Historically, the oldest records of kazunoko in Japan date to the 15th and 16th centuries, served e.g. to Toyotomi Hideyoshi, during the spring season (Cf.
The harvest of kazunoko from herring occur in the spring, but the dried product was being sold as a New Year's season item by the end of the 17th century.
[13] Also, North American herring fishing since the 1960s have has principally been aimed at harvesting the kazunoko for the Japanese market, waste/sustainability issues have been raised[14][15] (cf.
Both "kazunoko" and the archaic kadonoko occur in medieval or post-medieval writings and also written in Sinitic forms such as 鯟子, 鰊子, 鯡子, 鯑.
§ Quality assessment by region) The Atlantic herring is deemed overall to have less crunchiness, so that they are largely consigned to becoming "flavored kazunoko" or a side dish (sōzai, equivalent to okazu).
[5] Thus the Baltic group (subspecies C. harengus menbrus) has been rated best among Atlantic species[k] fit to be made into salted (shio kazunoko), as are the roes originating in Scotland (Shetlands), Ireland, and Netherlands have been[5] Other than texture, viscosity (ability to bind together into a lump) is another criterion for quality, and eggs that fall apart easily is a disqualifying factor for manufacturing whole salted kazunoko.
[24][69] The kazunoko (かずの子) is attested to be the offspring(eggs) of the kado fish in an even earlier source Satsujōshū (撮壌集) (1454) which names it alongside the kurukuru (alias of kozukozu)[71].
It was offered as menu item during a visit by the Ashikaga shogunate to Echizen Province in 1568 (Eiroku 11), recorded in Asakura-tei onariki (朝倉亭御成記).
[77][78][80] In the Edo Period, documents from the Kanbun era (1661–1673) for instance indicate shipments of dried herring and kazunoko occurring out of Ezo (Hokkaido).
[83] Note that kasu or shimekasu (herring meal squeezed of oil[85]) was not manufactured at this time, and would not commence until several decades later in the early 19th century,[10] or perhaps earlier.
yosekazunoko (寄数子), aka yoseko (寄せ子) is described as a kazunoko broken up into individual eggs, with stringy tissue removed, then molded into a square shape (or disc-shape[96]), and cut up into smaller rectangular logs to be used.
[98][99] The kazunoko became the byproduct of a much more intensely traded commodity once herring meal [r] or ニシン粕/〆粕 (nishin kasu/shimekasu, lit 'herring-pressed residue')[s] began to be manufactured in the 19th century according to one study[10] though some commentators place the date earlier by some decades, as afore stated.
[11] This herring meal (oil residue) grew to become increasingly sought-after as a replacement solution to the price-hiking, diminishing supplies of hoshika (干鰯, dried sardine,[102] actually anchovy[103]) fertilizer.
[104][105][87][t] The 8th Tokugawa shogun Yoshimune, known for his Kyōhō Reforms promoting frugality, allegedly devised a 3-item sake snacks (三つ肴, mitsu zakana) menu: kazunoko, gomame [ja] (aka tazukuri, an anchovy dish), and black soybeans [ja] to accompany New Year's sake drinking,[u][v][w] so that the common folk and the shogun alike could celebrate the holiday season in similar fashion.
[111] The salted herring roe (鹽數子（塩数の子, shio kazunoko) was available by the 19th century, and recorded as a tribute item (for the 12th month) to the shogunate either in the Bunka (1804–1818) or Tenpō (1831–1845) eras, supplied by the Matsumae and also Ise-Kameyama Domain.
In 1980, the Ministry of Health and Welfare did not ban, but mandated zero-level tolerance for residual peroxides in food, and as a result, all the other industries abandoned its use, except for kazunoko operators.
According to the description of pre-industrial herring processing at Esashi in Ezo country, it is observed that even the removal of the fish from gillnets without scarring the eggs inside involved recruiting inveterate fishermen.
[136][ac] Merchants peddled Japanese-made goods to the Ainu on maegashi (前貸し, 'advance loan'), then collect any remaining balance in the form of providing labor for seafood production.
At the Aniva Bay operation (southern tip of Sakhalin), there has been found a loan ledger for "sudare", whereby the Ainu made repayments by crafting and delivering the surdare grass screens after the winter season.
[13] According to the 1792 work, removed milt can be handled right away to be dried, but kazunoko are fragile and will break apart unless they are first "rested" for 2 or 3 days in boxes or barrels before manipulating them to be sun-dried.
The main fishing grounds for herring were in Hokkaido (formerly Ezochi), targeting the particular schools that feed and spawn on the Sea of Japan side.
Later, the clan extended control over the fisheries north and eastward, as far as Southern Sakhalin (Minami Karafuto), and opened Hakodate port on the east coast.
The Sitka, Alaska area was one of the oldest Tlingit village settlements, and had been collecting eggs on seaweed or hemlock branches since time immemorial, according to descendant testimony.
[181] In the Bristol Bay (east extreme of Bering Sea) area including Togiak and nearby communities, [158][al] the Yup'ik Eskimo also traditionally engaged in fishing herring and gathering their eggs.
[182] The spawn on kelp (Central Alaskan Yupʼik: qaryaq,[183][am]) are preserved frozen, salted, or dried, and customarily eaten with seal oil.
[186][188] The Bering Strait zone is generally Iñupiat Eskimo country, but an informant from Stebbins (which was settled by Nelson Islanders) stated that the collection of spawn on kelp (Yup'ik, Neson-Stebbins subdialect: ellquat) is a time honored tradition.
The foraged vegetable is called pittok (ピットㇰ) or siturukina (シト゜ルキナ) and the stems, or more precisely the stalks of the radical leaves [ja] which have been peeled and preserved are reconstituted and sliced up.
Dried herring roe (Ainu: pere (ペレ/ぺレー)[194] and seal fat are pounded until milky white, and mixed with the vegetable and diatomaceous earth (added to counteract the acerbity.
[200] An example Kazunoko ni itokenaki ha wo narashi keri (数の子にいとけなき歯を鳴らしけり, "Herring roe, upon which the young 'uns teeth resound") read by Mokkoku Tamura [ja].
