Protected local food
Tagonoura Shirasu
田子の浦しらす
Tiny, translucent baby fish caught off Tagonoura at the top of Suruga Bay, below Mount Fuji. Springy and fresh, eaten raw or lightly boiled over rice.
Key facts
- Registered as a protected name
- 23 June 2017
- Region
- Chubu
- Official name in Japanese
- 田子の浦しらす
- Official area (in Japanese)
- 静岡県田子の浦沖（富士市沖・沼津市沖）
Fed by Mount Fuji
The fishing grounds lie in the far north of Suruga Bay, off Fuji and Numazu in Shizuoka. Water from Mount Fuji and the Southern Alps carries nutrients into the bay, so plankton is plentiful, and the port is close by.
Landed whole and fresh
Fishers use a single-boat trawl that does not crush the fish, and chill the catch with ice on board. The shirasu arrive clear, springy and intact, so fresh that even frozen and thawed they are hard to tell from just-landed fish. Boiled, they curl into the shape of the Japanese letter し (shi) and turn plump and full of flavour.
How to eat it
The classic is a shirasu-don: a bowl of rice topped with raw (nama) or boiled (kamaage) shirasu, a little ginger and soy sauce. Many places serve both, half and half.
Good to know
- Raw shirasu depends on the day's catch and is not served when fishing is closed. If you see nama shirasu on a menu, order it.
- On a clear day the fishing port has views of Mount Fuji. Pair it with a trip to Mishima, just east.
Questions travellers ask
What are shirasu?
Baby fish, mostly young sardines, only a few centimetres long. They are eaten whole, raw or boiled.
Where is Tagonoura?
On the coast of Fuji city, Shizuoka Prefecture, at the northern end of Suruga Bay.
Where it comes from
More protected foods from the same area
Crafts from the same area
Heritage stories from the same area
Sources
We checked the facts on this page against these sources.