Japanese Sushi Types: Nigiri, Gunkan, Maki and the Names of Neta

The core idea: a shape word plus a topping word

Every sushi name answers two questions: how is the rice shaped, and what goes with it? The shape words come from verbs of handling. Nigiri comes from nigiru, to grip or squeeze, and maki from maku, to roll. The topping or filling is the neta (ネタ), a trade word usually explained as tane, seed or material, read backwards.

Names join the two parts in two ways. For nigiri and gunkan the topping comes first with no: maguro no nigiri, ikura no gunkan. For rolls the filling fuses with maki into one word: kappa-maki, literally a kappa roll, is named after the water sprite of folklore said to love cucumbers. After another word, sushi becomes zushi: chirashi-zushi. At a conveyor-belt restaurant, a friend explains the screen.

Nine shapes of sushi, side by side

These nine shapes cover almost everything sold in Japan. Read the diagram by rows: the top row is formed by hand, the middle row shows rolls cut open, and in the bottom row a bowl, a pouch or a box shapes the rice.

UnihongoVocabulary

あれはまぐろの握りにぎりだよ。That one's a tuna nigiri.

Gunkan-maki is named for its look: a dark wall of nori with roe heaped on top resembles a warship. It is young as sushi goes; the usual account credits a Ginza restaurant in 1941. Inari-zushi is named after Inari shrines, whose fox messengers are said to love fried tofu.

The toppings you will meet first

Topping names are usually written in kana, because fish kanji are hard even for many Japanese readers: maguro (鮪) is nearly always printed in kana instead. The twelve below cover most of a first visit.

Two need a note. Hamachi is a young buri, yellowtail, a shusse-uo, literally a promotion fish, whose name changes as it grows; the stages differ by region, and in trade hamachi often simply means farmed. Sāmon, in katakana, is the raw, usually farmed salmon of sushi, a newcomer that Norwegian exporters promoted from the mid-1980s.

Counting sushi with kan, and asking for sabi-nuki

Nigiri and gunkan are counted with kan (貫): ikkan, nikan, sankan, yonkan, gokan. On menus, the number before kan tells you how many pieces are on a plate. Today one kan is one piece. You may read that a kan was once a pair; the counter's origin is disputed, and many people simply say hitotsu or ikko. A whole roll is ippon, a set is ichinin-mae, and at a conveyor-belt shop the plate is counted: hitosara, futasara.

Sabi is shop talk for wasabi, and nuki comes from nuku, to pull out, so sabi-nuki is literally wasabi pulled out. Several large conveyor-belt chains now leave wasabi off and put packets on the table, so the word matters most at a counter or takeaway shop, where the chef adds it between fish and rice. The same nuki works elsewhere: negi-nuki, no spring onion. Counter etiquette has its own guide; here a parent is buying a takeaway lunch.

Beyond the basics: akami, chūtoro and ōtoro

The three grades of tuna are three parts of one fish, and a single fact explains them: fat sits under the skin, and there is most of it on the belly, around the organs. Akami (赤身), literally red body, is the lean meat around the spine. Toro is the fatty meat near the skin; the name is said to come from customers who found it melted in the mouth, torotto. Chūtoro sits in between, on the belly and in a band along the back. Ōtoro is found only on the belly, above all toward the head.

That is why ōtoro costs most: one fish yields little of it. The boundaries are not fixed lines; fat varies by season and fish. Two friends are at a counter, and the chef joins in.

UnihongoVocabulary

赤身あかみと中ちゅうトロ、どっちにする？Lean or medium-fat, which will you have?

Beyond the basics: how chefs group the fish

Chefs sort toppings into families, and traditional menus follow them. Akami covers red-fleshed fish such as tuna and bonito (katsuo). Shiromi, literally white body, covers white fish such as sea bream (tai) and flounder (hirame), light and often eaten first. Hikarimono, literally shiny things, are silver-skinned fish such as horse mackerel (aji), gizzard shad (kohada) and mackerel (saba), often cured with salt and vinegar. Then come shellfish (kai) and cooked items such as conger eel (anago), brushed with a sweet sauce called tsume.

Treatments go in front of the fish: aburi, seared with a flame; zuke, marinated in soy sauce; shime, cured in vinegar, as in shime-saba. Aburi sāmon follows the menu's usual pattern, a preparation word plus a topping word. A customer asks the chef about today's fish.

Confusable pairs: nigiri and onigiri, sake and sāmon

Most mix-ups come from pairs that share a root, a colour or a sound. A friend corrects a newcomer at the counter.

Akami pairs with itself: the lean tuna cut on a menu, every red-fleshed fish in a chef's talk of families.

Common mistakes with sushi words

Calling raw fish sushi. In English the two blur, so learners order sushi when they want sliced fish. In Japanese, sushi is about the rice; ask for sashimi.

Asking for onigiri at a sushi counter. The words differ by one syllable and share a verb, so they swap under pressure. Onigiri belongs to convenience stores and lunchboxes; the word at a sushi shop is nigiri.

Reading nikan as two pairs. Learners who have read that a kan was once a pair expect four pieces. Today the number is the number of pieces.

Expecting inside-out rolls everywhere. Uramaki such as the California roll developed abroad and appear mainly at conveyor-belt chains, as kariforunia rōru. At a traditional counter, rolls have the nori outside.

Saying sake for salmon. Sake the fish and sake the rice wine differ only in pitch, and at a sushi bar listeners expect the drink. On a menu, the salmon is sāmon.