Sushi Culture, History and Craft

Most of what feels timeless about sushi is surprisingly recent. The hand-pressed nigiri at a Hong Kong omakase counter dates from 1820s Edo. The conveyor belt at a mall chain dates from 1958. Salmon, now the city's most ordered sushi fish, only became a sushi topping in the 1980s, thanks to a Norwegian marketing campaign. Knowing that history makes the menu easier to read and the price differences easier to understand.

This guide traces how sushi evolved, explains the craft behind a serious counter, and shows how that history shapes what you eat in Hong Kong today.

Four dates that explain modern sushi. Narezushi, fish fermented in rice, reached Japan from Southeast Asia well over a thousand years ago. Nigiri was born as street food in Edo, credited to Hanaya Yohei around 1824. The first conveyor-belt restaurant opened in Higashi-Osaka in 1958. And salmon sushi is largely the result of Norway's "Project Japan", launched in the mid-1980s.

Before sushi: fermented fish

Sushi began as a way to preserve fish, not to eat it raw. The earliest form, now called narezushi, originated in Southeast Asia: fish was salted, packed in cooked rice and left to lacto-ferment for months, after which the sour rice was discarded and the fish eaten. The method spread to Japan from continental Asia over a millennium ago, and a direct descendant, funazushi made from crucian carp around Lake Biwa in Shiga Prefecture, is still made today.

Over the following centuries the process sped up. Cooks shortened fermentation, began eating the rice alongside the fish, and eventually replaced slow fermentation with the quick sourness of vinegar. That shift is why sushi is defined by its seasoned rice to this day, a point explained in what is sushi: types and basic terms and sushi rice versus regular rice.

Edo and the invention of nigiri

The decisive leap came in Edo, the city now called Tokyo, in the 1820s. Credited to the stall-keeper Hanaya Yohei, sushi became fresh fish pressed by hand onto vinegared rice and eaten on the spot. It was fast food for what was then one of the world's largest cities: sold from street stalls, eaten standing in seconds, with pieces roughly twice the size of today's.

Because there was no refrigeration, the fish from Edo Bay had to be treated. Tuna was marinated in soy, white fish cured with kombu, mackerel salted and vinegared, prawns boiled and clams simmered. Those preservation techniques became a style in their own right, Edomae — literally "in front of Edo" — and they survive at serious counters long after refrigeration made them unnecessary, because they deepen flavour. The tradition, and how to recognise it, is in Edomae style omakase explained.

From Tokyo to the rest of Japan

For a century, nigiri remained largely an Edo speciality, while western Japan kept its own tradition of pressed and boxed sushi, oshizushi, associated with Osaka. The Edo style spread nationwide after the Great Kanto Earthquake of 1923, when sushi chefs displaced from Tokyo carried their technique across the country.

Refrigeration, electricity and improved transport through the twentieth century then changed the fish itself. Raw fish could travel, which widened the range of species and loosened the dependence on curing. The formats that grew out of these traditions — nigiri, maki, gunkan and temaki — are compared in nigiri versus maki versus gunkan explained.

1958: the conveyor belt

Conveyor-belt sushi was invented by Yoshiaki Shiraishi, who ran a busy standing sushi shop in Osaka and could not find enough staff to keep up with orders. The idea reportedly came to him while watching beer bottles move along a conveyor at a brewery. After years of trial and error he developed a rotating counter, and in 1958 opened the world's first kaiten-zushi restaurant, Mawaru Genroku Sushi, in Higashi-Osaka.

The belt turned sushi from a treat into everyday food, and the model eventually spread across Asia. In Hong Kong today, most of the sushi eaten comes from chains descended from that idea, though nearly all now deliver plates by tablet order and express lane rather than relying on the circulating belt. See kaiten sushi ordering by tablet, the best conveyor belt sushi in Hong Kong and Hong Kong sushi chains and menus.

Standing bars: the oldest format, revived

Shiraishi's own shop was a standing bar, and standing is how Edo's original street-stall sushi was eaten. The tachigui format — stand at a counter, eat made-to-order sushi quickly, leave — has come back in Hong Kong, where standing-bar sets of eight pieces sell for around HKD 138. It is the closest a modern diner gets to how nigiri was first eaten, and it is explained in standing sushi bars in Hong Kong: what to expect.

How salmon became a sushi fish

Salmon was not traditionally eaten raw in Japan, partly because of concern about parasites in wild fish. That changed through a deliberate campaign. In 1985, a Norwegian delegation led by former fisheries minister Thor Listau travelled to Tokyo to sell fish, and the initiative that followed, Project Japan, set out to persuade Japanese diners that raw farmed Norwegian salmon could be served as sushi at a time when demand for tuna was outstripping supply.

It took about a decade of tastings, embassy dinners and relationship-building, and it worked. Norway sold around 2 tonnes of salmon to Japan in 1980; twenty years later it was exporting more than 45,000 tonnes a year. That history is why salmon dominates chain menus but rarely appears at classical Edomae counters. The cuts are explained in salmon versus salmon belly sushi, and the wider picture of fish in our sushi and sashimi fish guide.

The craft of the counter

At a serious sushi counter, the chef — the itamae — typically spends years learning before being trusted with the fish. The craft is less about knife tricks than about control: buying and judging fish, ageing and curing it, cooking and seasoning rice to hold its shape at body temperature, and shaping each piece with exactly the right pressure. Rice is the part most chefs describe as the hardest to master.

The chef's decisions define the meal. Soy glaze is brushed on so you do not need to dip; wasabi is placed between fish and rice; the order of pieces runs deliberately from light to rich. That is why the meal is handed over entirely to the chef in an omakase, explained in what is omakase and how does it work, and why the conventions at the counter exist, covered in omakase etiquette.

Why the rituals exist

Sushi etiquette looks formal, but almost every rule has a practical reason. You eat a piece within a minute because the rice is shaped at a specific temperature. You dip the fish rather than the rice because the rice absorbs soy instantly and falls apart. You do not mix wasabi into soy because it destroys the wasabi's aroma and overrides the chef's seasoning. You eat pickled ginger between pieces because it resets the palate. Fingers are traditional for nigiri because a loosely formed piece breaks under chopsticks.

The details are in sushi etiquette: hands or chopsticks and wasabi and soy sauce: how much to use, and the vocabulary that goes with them in Japanese sushi menu words. For the sequence of an order, see how to order sushi like a local.

Seasonality as craft

A chef's skill shows as much in what is left off the menu as in what is served. Seasonal fish taste markedly different through the year: winter brings fattier tuna, buri and translucent hirame, while summer brings Hokkaido uni, kanpachi and aji. A counter that changes its sequence with the market is following the tradition rather than cutting corners. The calendar is in the seasonal Japanese fish calendar, and the most prized cuts in otoro, chutoro and akami explained.

Sushi in Hong Kong today

Hong Kong's sushi scene layers every stage of this history in one city: supermarket packs and belt chains descended from Shiraishi's invention, standing bars echoing Edo's street stalls, and eight-seat Edomae counters working in the curing-and-ageing tradition. The price differences between them — from about HKD 12 a plate to HKD 4,000 a dinner — reflect how much of that craft, labour and scarcity each format carries, as set out in why good sushi is expensive and what sushi really costs in Hong Kong.

Modern realities shape it too. Since 24 August 2023, Hong Kong has banned aquatic products from ten Japanese prefectures, including Tokyo, which affects where local counters can source fish; the details are in Japanese seafood sourcing and food safety. And conservation pressure on species such as Japanese freshwater eel and bluefin tuna is part of the craft conversation now, covered in sustainable seafood choices and unagi versus anago.

Tradition does not make raw fish safe. Vinegar, salt, soy sauce and wasabi — the Edo-era tools of preservation — do not kill parasites such as Anisakis. Modern safety depends on proper freezing and cold-chain handling. Hong Kong's Centre for Food Safety classifies sushi and sashimi as high-risk foods, and advises pregnant women, young children, older adults and people who are immunocompromised to avoid raw seafood. See is it safe to eat raw fish.

Experiencing the tradition

To taste the Edomae tradition properly, book a counter that works in that style; start with the best omakase in Hong Kong and the best sushi restaurants in Hong Kong. For the broader Japanese culinary tradition that sushi grew out of, including kaiseki and kappo, see kaiseki versus omakase and beyond sushi: Japanese dishes explained. To understand the craft from the inside, try making it: our guide to making sushi at home and sushi making classes in Hong Kong are the places to start. For travellers, the tradition at its source is covered in our Japan sushi travel guide.

Common questions

Where did sushi originate?

Its earliest form, fermented fish packed in rice, originated in Southeast Asia and reached Japan from continental Asia over a millennium ago.

Who invented nigiri?

It is credited to Hanaya Yohei, a street-stall keeper in Edo, around 1824.

When was conveyor-belt sushi invented?

In 1958, when Yoshiaki Shiraishi opened Mawaru Genroku Sushi in Higashi-Osaka.

Is salmon traditional sushi?

No. It became a sushi fish in Japan through Norway's Project Japan campaign from the mid-1980s.

What does Edomae mean?

"In front of Edo" — the Tokyo Bay tradition of curing, ageing and simmering fish, which defines most high-end sushi today.

Compiled by our editorial team from published histories of sushi, reporting on the invention of conveyor-belt sushi including obituary and Japanese cultural sources, the Norwegian Seafood Council and other accounts of Project Japan, Japanese culinary references, Hong Kong Food and Environmental Hygiene Department and Centre for Food Safety information, and current Hong Kong restaurant listings. Last reviewed September 2026. Early sushi history relies on attributed rather than documented dates, and sources give slightly different accounts; we have used the most widely cited versions. General information only, not medical advice.