The Fish-Eating Song

The Fish-Eating Song is the fourth volume of Idle Talk by Changsheng, an essay collection by the Japan-based writer Li Changsheng. It contains seventy-three pieces, which broadly fall into two strands: one on food, the other on travel. The food pieces take Japanese cuisine as their entry point: from the sweetfish, whose fishing method was already recorded in the Nihon Shoki, to the famous funazushi of Shiga, a fermented crucian carp that leaves its smell lingering in the air, and to ancient preparations such as "kuwae and aburi," raw and flame-grilled dishes. The author points out that many eating habits now regarded as hallmarks of Japanese cuisine are in fact deeply rooted in Chinese culinary traditions. The book also includes a strand of "explaining fish through characters," starting from pictographic Chinese characters to compare fish names and eating methods in China and Japan. Fugu, bonito, salmon, tofu, miso, pickles, soba, sake, and beer each have their own essays, with anecdotes about writers and wine and writers on food. The travel pieces are more dynamic: the author sits and reads, then rises from reading to travel, recalling the old missions to Sui and Tang China at the Korokan, the vicissitudes of the move of the capital to Edo by the Sumida River, tracing the "thin thread" of Japanese poetic history along the Narrow Road to the Deep North, experiencing the "beauty of shadows" of Nagai Kafu in Tokyo's backstreets, and writing about local folk festivals, plum and cherry blossom viewing, and the Awa Dance. Composed of short pieces, the book balances knowledge, wit, and insight, with a relaxed and humorous style. It is a collection of cultural essays that uses food and travel as threads to survey the texture of Japanese culture at leisure.