Although Japan ’s culinary art is complex and diverse , for most Americans , Nipponese food is synonymous with sushi . There arethousands of sushi restaurantsacross the United States today , grossing billions each year . But 50 years ago , most Americans had never heard of sushi ; if they eat Japanese solid food at all , it was more likely to be sukiyaki ( beef and vegetables cook hot - pot style in a soy - base broth ) or tempura . If fact , many Americans would have thought the idea of use up raw fish appalling . It took a crash - strike TV show and a boom in in-migration from Japan to turn sushi into an everyday “ American ” food .
How Sushi Came to America
In the fifties many Americans were middling insubordinate to Japanese intellectual nourishment and culture , in part because they had lived throughWorld War IIand still perceived Japan as “ the enemy . ” But by the 1960s , the tide had initiate to turn : Food journalist and restaurant criticCraig Claiborne , writing forThe New York Timesdining section during that X , was excited by international dining and keep tabs on the city ’s numerous Japanese restaurants . He declared Japanese food a movement in New York after two establishment open in 1963 , noting that “ New Yorkers seem to take to the raw Pisces peach , sashimi and sushi , with almost the same enthusiasm they display for tempura and sukiyaki . ” However , he admitted , “ sushi may seem a technicality too ‘ far out ’ for many American roof of the mouth ” [ PDF ] .
According toThe chronicle of Sushi : An Unlikely Saga of Raw Fish and Riceby Trevor Corson , Los Angeles was the first American home of authentic Japanese sushi . In 1966 , a Nipponese man of affairs named Noritoshi Kanai brought a sushi chef and his married woman from Japan , and opened a nigiri sushi bar with them inside a Nipponese restaurant known as Kawafuku in LA ’s Little Tokyo . The restaurant was democratic , but only with Nipponese immigrants , not with American clientele . However , as more sushi berth unfold in Little Tokyo , word got back to Japan that there was money to be made in America . Young chefs , tired of the rigorous and restrictive traditional culture of sushi making in Japan , struck out on their own in LA .
The first sushi legal community outside of the Little Tokyo neck of the woods popped up in 1970 , next to the 20th Century Fox studio . name Osho , it begin attracting a fashionable , fame clientele — including Yul Brynner , a lunchtime regular . As Hollywood set out to cover sushi throughout the 1970s , the food also got a hike as Americans were advance to feed more fish for betterhealth . allot to Corson , “ In 1977 , the U.S. Senate issued a reputation calledDietary Goals for the United States , that blamed fatty , high - cholesterol foods for the increasing relative incidence of disease . The study recommended greater use of goods and services of fish and grains . Around the same time , wellness experts also start to promote the welfare of omega-3 fatty dot , abundant in fish . Many Americans discovered sushi as a healthful alternative . ”
Shōgun’s Culinary Legacy
And then cameShōgun , an epic television receiver upshot that would shift America ’s ethnic relationship with Japan . Based on James Clavell ’s 1975 novel , Shōgunis a work of historic fabrication show the story of a British sailor ’s rise as a political player in 17th 100 Japan . TheShōgunminiseries , which aired over five evening in mid - September 1980 , was a smash hit — follow by more than 30 percent of American households and earning three Golden world and three Emmys .
The show was also notable because it was filmed altogether in Japan and all the Nipponese purpose were actually played by Japanese actors . ( antecedently in American films and tv , Asian roles were often run by American actors in yellowface — opine Mickey Rooney inBreakfast at Tiffany’s.)Shōgundepicted Nipponese dress , civilisation , and intellectual nourishment with a level of authenticity that was previously alone on the American screen . A surprising amount ofacademic researchhas since been done ofShōgunand its ethnic influence , and the series was take take in in many eminent school history programme throughout the 1980s . Corson credits the show with sparkle “ a nationwide interestingness in all things Japanese , including sushi . ”
The launching of theShōgunseries coincided with an economical roar in Japan that brought many Nipponese businesses to the United States in the belated ’ 70 ’s and early ’ 80s . This , in turn , encouraged a new wave of Nipponese immigration . The combination of gastronomically homesick Japanese and Americans enraptured by Nipponese finish created a waving of sake in Nipponese food , particularly sushi .
Bon Yagi Leaves His Mark
In 1984 , what is in all likelihood the oldest continually operating sushi restaurant in New York , Hasaki , opened . The eatery was found on East 9th Street in the Little Tokyo section of the East Village by a Japanese immigrant nominate Bon Yagi , who wanted to obviate the unfocussed , pan - Nipponese eating place that had been more common in America ’s past times . Hasaki was the resolution of the boom in Japanese in-migration — it provided a comforting dose of home for expats . But it survived and thrived because of the produce American interest in Japanese cuisine .
Yagi capitalise on Hasaki ’s success by opening over a dozen other restaurants within a few blocks , all concenter on Nipponese specialties — including a soba noodle restaurant with soy - soaked dashi broth , a ramen join , a passing curry billet , and a pocket-size shop for takoyaki fried octopus Ball , among others . His restaurants became the sum of the Little Tokyo neighborhood , which still attracts Japanese immigrant as well as curious Americans with root in other cultures .
Outside of New York , it can be hard to discover the varied Nipponese specialties Yagi has bring to the East Village — but it ’s very loose to receive a sushi eating place . Sushi has become as ubiquitous in America as Chinese take - out , and has experience much of the same transformative evolution asAmerican Chinese food for thought . It ’s changed as a event of being made by Americans without Japanese heritage , and also while its creators focused on local , American ingredients .
The Rise of American-Style Sushi
Corson accredit the invention of theCalifornia rollwith making sushi accessible to Americans . The roll evolve in Los Angeles in the 1960s , and used local avocado pear paired with crab heart to supersede hard - to - find fresh , fat tuna . But its real innovation came many years later , when a chef decide to make the gyre “ inside out”—with the seaweed hidden in the middle . ( The first genius to make an inner - out ringlet is unknown . ) The California roll used ingredients familiar to Americans and hide the seaweed , which was see as foreign and challenging .
Another classic example , the zesty tuna roll , was invented in Los Angeles in the other eighties by mixing tuna scraps with chile sauce and rolling the result with seaweed and Elmer Leopold Rice . Today , the tuna curlicue is usually sauce with sriracha , which is produce in the nearby suburb of Irwindale , California . The outcome is a mix of Nipponese and “ American ” flavors .
In the past half - hundred , it ’s not just Americans who have become fascinated with Nipponese acculturation ; the feeling is often reciprocal . As a result , American - panache sushi has begun to make its way back to Japan . According to an article inThe Asia - Pacific Journal , “ The sushi that is served in these new - waving American sushi restaurants ( mostly roll sushi with ingredient other than raw fish ) is both similar to , and distinctively different from most sushi available in Japan . ” In one restaurant in Tokyo , Genji Sushi New York , the signage and computer menu are part in English and they attend California rolls ; Philadelphia rolls with Salmon River , cream cheese , and cucumber ; and Rainbow rolls , a variation on a California curlicue that is wrapped in multicolored sashimi . All are American existence . TheJournalexplains the Japanese use of these hybrid - sushi rolls is both playful and ironic , and seen as something cool and hip .
Today , come across friends for sushi is almost as American as going out for a beer and a pizza . It ’s proof positive that when we allow for our hearts — and plates — open to other culture , good thing often come of it .
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A rendering of this floor ran in 2017 ; it has been updated for 2024 .
