In Shimonoseki they do not say fugu. They say fuku, which is also the word for good fortune, and the substitution is meant seriously.

In 1888 Ito Hirobumi ate one here, was sufficiently impressed, and instructed the prefectural governor to lift the prohibition. Until that point serving it had been against the law. Yamaguchi was the first prefecture to allow it again, and because of that head start the handling rules, the licensing and most of the dishes were worked out in this town.

The sashimi is cut so thin that the pattern of the plate shows through the flesh, and it is laid out in overlapping rings so that the plate stays visible. The milt is grilled until the inside of the skin collapses. A grilled fin dropped into hot sake makes a drink that is very largely smell.

Most of the fish landed here now was not caught anywhere near here. It arrives from around the country and from across the sea, because this is where the people licensed to take it apart happen to be. Shimonoseki is less a fishing town in this trade than a sorting house, and it became one over about a century, on the strength of being allowed to touch something dangerous.