[For Seniors] How Many Can You Answer? Fun Sushi Trivia Quiz & Tidbits

soy sauce

“Murasaki” is sushi shop jargon that refers to soy sauce. Soy sauce used to have a more reddish color than it does today, and it’s said that people began calling soy sauce “murasaki” around the Meiji era.

gunkan-maki (battleship-style sushi)

Gunkan-maki is a type of sushi made by wrapping vinegared rice with nori and placing toppings on top; it got its name because its shape resembles a warship. Typical toppings include salmon roe (ikura), sea urchin (uni), and minced fatty tuna with green onion (negitoro). Incidentally, it’s said that the original idea for gunkan-maki came from the proprietor of the Ginza sushi restaurant “Ginza Kyubey” at the time.

Buddha’s remains (Śarīra)

"Shari" originates from the Buddhist term "shari," which means the cremated remains of the Buddha. Sushi rice is said to have been given this name because it is small and white, resembling shari.

salt

“Nami no hana” is a piece of sushi bar slang that refers to salt. It’s called this because the way the salt is lightly heaped resembles “wave flowers,” the sea spray that looks like blossoms. The term is also said to derive from nyōbō-kotoba, the women’s court language used by ladies-in-waiting in the Muromachi period.

Mawaru Genroku Sushi

The first conveyor-belt sushi restaurant in Japan was Mawaru Genroku Sushi in Osaka Prefecture. Its founder, Yoshiaki Shiraishi, opened an eatery in Higashi-Osaka City and offered sushi—then considered a dish for special occasions like celebrations—at affordable prices so that young workers and students could enjoy it casually. Later, inspired by a beer factory’s conveyor belt, he created conveyor-belt sushi.

inside-out sushi roll

“Uramaki sushi” refers to a type of rolled sushi where the ingredients and nori are wrapped in vinegared rice rather than being wrapped with nori on the outside. The American-style California roll is also known as a type of uramaki sushi. Unlike regular makizushi, the vinegared rice is on the outside, giving it a visually striking appearance.

dried gourd strips (kanpyō)

In sushi restaurants, “Kizu” refers to kanpyo (dried gourd strips). There are various theories, but the leading one holds that production of kanpyo began in Kizu—an area in what is now Naniwa Ward, Osaka—and continued to flourish there, which led to the term’s usage.