To reinforce the nation’s coastal defenses against foreign vessels in the final years of the Edo Period (1603-1867), the Tokugawa Shogunate created a new official position called “Niigata Bugyo” for management of Niigata Port.

Nagataka Kawamura (1795-1878), who was chosen for the post, kept a close account of what he saw and heard in Niigata, probably out of his need to understand the region and the local sentiment.

In one report titled “Kawamura Nagataka Monjo VIII” (Documents of Nagataka Kawamura, Volume 8), he noted that while most fish from the northern sea tasted somewhat bland, there was “one truly delicious fish.”

It was not salmon, nor cod. He described it as being redder........

© The Asahi Shimbun