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Fish and seafood from Japan

Funazushi鮒寿司

Female crucian carp with roe are gutted through the gills, packed with salt for at least two months, then washed and layered with cooked rice in a weighted barrel under water. Lactic bacteria in the rice sour the fish over six months or more until even the bones are soft.

Fully documentedFish and seafood8 months

Recipe

Amounts from a sourceOne 20-litre barrel, from the MAFF regional recipe supplied by the Shiga food culture study group (Shiga no Shokuji Bunka Kenkyūkai).
Crucian carp (funa)10 kg (raw weight)[maff-recipe]
Salt for the salting stage10 kg[maff-recipe]
Rice, cooked and cooled4–8 shō[maff-recipe]
Salt mixed into the rice200 g (the recipe allows 0–1000 g)40–80 g per shō of rice; many makers now add none[maff-recipe]
Sake or vinegar1–2 gōUsed on the hands while packing[maff-recipe]
Starterspontaneous (no starter added)

Total time across the recorded steps: 8 months

Start
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What changes: The carp are scaled and gutted through the gills, leaving the roe inside

Step 1 of 4
Scale and gut through the gills
Time
Not documented
Temperature
Not documented
Salt
None given
Acidity
Not documented
Which microbes the steps name, step by step
Lactic acid bacteria
L. buchneri

Output: whole fish with roe left inside; scales, gills, guts, gall bladder and swim bladder removed.

Flavour
Not documented
Texture
Not documented
Colour
Not documented

Microbes at work in this step

Not documented for this step.

Method

Measured measured in a studySet fixed by a specification or tested recipeReported one source reports itTypical a general value, not sourced for this fermentUnconfirmed not yet checked against a source

At a glance

Female crucian carp with roe are gutted through the gills, packed with salt for at least two months, then washed and layered with cooked rice in a weighted barrel under water. Lactic bacteria in the rice sour the fish over six months or more until even the bones are soft. Made in 4 steps over 8 months. The longest step, layer with rice under a weight and water (honzuke), takes at least 6 months (MAFF Japan). Salt is 2–5 % (Tanabe K. et al. 2022). Weissella confusa, Lactiplantibacillus plantarum and Levilactobacillus brevis in week 1 and Lacticaseibacillus paracasei and Companilactobacillus musae in week 2 do most of the fermenting.

Key numbers
Main stepat least 6 monthsReported[maff-recipe]Layer with rice under a weight and water (honzuke)
Salt2–5 %Reported[tanabe2022]Layer with rice under a weight and water (honzuke)

What makes this one different

Funazushi is the oldest style of sushi, where the rice is a ferment, not a seasoning. The fish is salted for months first, then fermented in rice for half a year or more until the bones soften.

Related ferments

Variants

  • Pickling-bag funazushiSealed in a plastic pickling bag instead of under water; a simpler home method.
  • Rice-only home funazushiMany households buy fish already salted and do only the rice packing.
  • Other Shiga narezushiMade with ugui, hasu, moroko, ayu, biwa trout, carp or loach.

Safety

Botulism is the serious hazard in this kind of food. Japan's farm ministry lists izushi and similar home-fermented fish among the foods easily contaminated, and izushi caused 14 of the 29 food-borne botulism incidents reported in Japan from June 1984 to February 2026. The ministry describes izushi and funazushi alike as narezushi, fish fermented in rice. Japan's health ministry also records three cases of type E botulism in 1989 from home-made "hasu sushi" in Shiga, and hasu is one of the fish Shiga makes into narezushi. Funazushi is sealed in rice for months, often with no salt added to the rice. Heavy salting and a long lactic fermentation preserve the fish, but no case in the botulism lists of Japan's health and farm ministries names funazushi. You cannot see, smell or taste the toxin, and even a small taste can be deadly (CDC). These steps record a regional recipe, not a method tested as safe for home use. In hot weather the barrel can ferment too fast and should be cooled.

Hazards the sources name: Aeromonas, Vibrio, Pseudomonas and Enterobacter isolated from the gut of raw crucian carp (preliminary tests).

History and sources

Every number is labelled with how it is known. How this atlas is made

Served in Ōmi Province since at least the Heian period (794–1185). Shiga named its narezushi a regional intangible folk-culture asset in 1998. Fewer homes make it now that nigorobuna have declined in Lake Biwa.

  1. [maff-recipe] MAFF Japan, Uchi no kyōdo ryōri, Funazushi (Shiga), recipe supplied by the Shiga food culture study groupgov
  2. [tanabe2022] Tanabe K. et al. 2022, Lentilactobacillus buchneri domination during the fermentation of Japanese traditional fermented fish (funazushi), Food Science and Nutrition 10(11):4073paper
  3. [mlit] Japan Tourism Agency multilingual commentary database, Funazushigov
  4. [maff-shiga] MAFF Japan, Uchi no kyōdo ryōri, Shiga area storiesgov
  5. [maff-botulism] MAFF Japan, Food safety risk profile sheet, Clostridium botulinum (updated 15 September 2026)gov
  6. [cdc-botulism] US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Botulism Prevention (updated 26 February 2026)gov
  7. [maff-izushi] MAFF Japan, Nippon dentōshoku zukan, Izushi (Hokkaido)gov
  8. [mhlw-botulism] MHLW Japan, Council material 3-7, Botulism food-poisoning incidents in Japan over about 20 years (2007)gov