Arame is a kelp that has been offered to Ise Shrine since ancient times, and it has been looked after carefully in this part of Mie for that reason. Soaked back to softness, it is wrapped around a fish at least three times, then simmered in soy sauce, sugar, and sake until the seaweed goes dark and yielding.

Which fish depends on where you are standing. On Kamishima and along the Higashi-Kishu coast it is usually saury. On Toshijima it is mostly sardine, though saury and cutlassfish appear too. Move north into the Hokusei area and the wrapping goes around freshwater fish such as goby.

Every one of those places calls the dish the same thing, and every one of them treats it as indispensable at new year. So the name has stayed fixed across islands, bays, and rivers while the contents moved from the open sea all the way inland.

What holds it together is the wrapping itself. Three turns of kelp, tied and then simmered slowly, and when you unwrap the bundle at the table the fish is still lying there inside it in its own shape. It occurred to me that this is a recipe about a gesture, not about an ingredient, which is why it survived being carried so far.