How Sushi Went From Edo Street Snack to the Art of the Counter

In the early nineteenth century, a hungry townsperson in Edo (the city now called Tokyo) could stop at a street stall, point at a small oval of vinegared rice topped with a slice of seasoned fish, and eat it standing up in two bites. That was nigirizushi (hand-pressed sushi), and at the time it counted as fast food in the truest sense. Two centuries later the same idea, refined by generations of chefs, sits behind the cedar counters of some of the most admired restaurants on earth.

This guide follows that journey from stall to counter. You will learn where sushi came from before Edo, how the chef usually credited with popularizing nigiri changed the way Japan eats, what the word edomae really means, and how to order and eat at a sushi counter with confidence and good manners.

Sushi Before Nigiri

The oldest form of sushi looks nothing like the pieces on a modern plate. Narezushi, generally considered the ancestor of all sushi, preserved fish by packing it in salted, fermented rice for weeks or months. The rice was discarded and only the fish was eaten. A descendant of that method, funazushi from the Lake Biwa region near Kyoto, is still made today and has a sharp, cheese-like tang that rewards the curious.

Over the centuries cooks looked for faster routes to the same sour flavor. By the Edo period (1603 to 1868) they had discovered that mixing vinegar into rice gave the tang at once, with no long fermentation. This quick style is known as haya-zushi (fast sushi). In Osaka it grew into oshizushi, fish pressed into a wooden box with rice and cut into blocks. In Edo, with its busy workers and its love of speed, the stage was set for something even quicker.

Hanaya Yohei and the Edo Fast-Food Boom

Hanaya Yohei (1799 to 1858) is the name most often linked with the birth of nigiri. He ran a sushi shop in Honjo, on the east side of the Sumida River in Edo, and is commonly credited with developing hand-pressed nigiri in the 1820s. His idea was simple and clever: instead of pressing fish and rice into a box and waiting, a chef could shape rice by hand, add a topping, and serve it at once.

The pieces of that era were quite different from today's. The rice portion was roughly three times the size of a modern nigiri, closer to a small rice ball, and the seasoning leaned on salt and a mellow red vinegar called aka-su, made from sake lees, rather than the sweeter, sharper mixes common now. Townspeople, the chonin class of merchants and craftspeople, ate nigiri from portable stalls called yatai (street food carts), often standing, often with a cup of tea. Historians describe it as the fast food of its day, and the label fits.

What Edomae Really Means

The style was first called Edomae zushi, literally sushi from in front of Edo, because the fish came from the waters of Edo Bay, today's Tokyo Bay. Refrigeration was far in the future, so cooks developed ways of keeping fish safe and delicious. They cured fillets with salt and vinegar, as with kohada (gizzard shad), simmered conger eel (anago) and prawns, and marinated slices of tuna in soy sauce, a method known as zuke.

These techniques are the heart of the Edomae approach: the chef does not simply slice fish but prepares each topping so that its flavor meets the rice at the right moment. Today the phrase Edomae nigirizushi has become shorthand for craft sushi in a classic style, whatever the origin of the ingredients. A counter in Fukuoka or Kanazawa may proudly call its sushi Edomae even though the fish comes from other seas.

Reading the Menu

A few terms unlock any sushi menu. Neta means the topping, and shari means the seasoned rice beneath it. Nigiri is the hand-pressed piece; maki is a roll wrapped in nori (dried seaweed); gunkan is the oval piece wrapped in a strip of nori to hold soft toppings such as sea urchin (uni) or salmon roe (ikura); chirashi is a bowl of rice with toppings scattered over it.

Tuna has its own vocabulary. Akami is the lean red meat, while chutoro and otoro are progressively fattier cuts from the belly. Traditionally the lean cuts were the prized ones, and the fatty cuts rose to fame later. Other staples include tamago (sweet layered omelet), which many diners treat as a test of a shop's skill, and seasonal fish such as sayori (halfbeak) in spring or sanma (Pacific saury) in autumn. Ask the chef what is in season; the answer is often the best order of the day.

From Conveyor Belts to Omakase

The twentieth century brought two very different directions. In 1958 Yoshiaki Shiraishi opened Mawaru Genroku Sushi in Higashiosaka, Osaka, the first conveyor belt sushi restaurant. He had been struggling to staff a small shop, and an idea took shape after he watched bottles travel along a conveyor at a brewery. Kaiten-zushi (rotating sushi) spread across Japan and became a family favorite, with plates priced by color or design.

At the other end of the spectrum is omakase, which means entrusting the meal to the chef. Seated at a counter, guests receive one piece at a time, each placed in front of them at the ideal moment. Between these poles lie standing sushi bars, department store food halls, and neighborhood shops with a regular lunch set. For many years the world's most famous sushi supply point was the Tsukiji fish market in Tokyo; its wholesale operations moved to Toyosu in October 2018, and the Tsukiji outer market still draws food lovers to its stalls and small restaurants.

How to Eat at a Sushi Counter

Start with the towel. A warm oshibori (damp hand towel) is usually offered at the start; use it to clean your hands, then fold it and set it aside. Nigiri is traditionally eaten with the fingers, even at formal counters, and chopsticks are perfectly acceptable too. Sashimi, sliced fish without rice, is normally eaten with chopsticks.

When using soy sauce, turn the nigiri over so the fish, not the rice, touches the sauce, because rice soaks up soy quickly and can fall apart. The chef often adds the right amount of wasabi between the rice and fish, so there is usually no need to add more. If a piece arrives already brushed with sauce, eat it as it comes. Eat each piece in one bite or two, soon after it is set down, since the temperature and texture are at their best then. Gari (pickled ginger) is meant to refresh the palate between different fish, not to be piled on top, and green tea, often called agari at sushi shops, cleanses it too.

Plan Your Visit

Many top counters take reservations only, sometimes weeks ahead and sometimes through a hotel concierge or a booking service, so plan early and mention any allergies when you reserve. Lunch sets are usually the easiest way to try a respected shop. For a relaxed start, a kaiten-zushi restaurant has picture menus and lets you order by simply taking plates from the belt or touching a screen.

Arrive on time, keep perfume light so it does not compete with the aroma of the rice, and avoid rubbing chopsticks together. Sushi neighborhoods in Tokyo include Ginza, the Tsukiji outer market and Toyosu, and every region of Japan has local fish worth trying. Hours, closed days and prices change often, so check each restaurant's official site before you go. A polite thank-you at the end, such as gochisosama deshita (thank you for the meal), is always appreciated.