This belongs to Shimoda and to Inatori, on the eastern side of the Izu peninsula. Three kinds of splendid alfonsino come out of these waters, and locals distinguish them carefully: jikinme caught close in, shimakinme from around the islands, okikinme from further out. The boats at Inatori bring in the first kind, which is why it also goes by Inatori kinme, or higaeri kinme, the fish that comes home the same day.

The fat is best from October through late March. To cook it the scales, gills, and guts come out, the fish is filleted, and the pieces go into a pan of sake, sugar, and soy sauce for about ten minutes of hard reduction. Nothing else. The sweetness in the fat dissolves into the liquid and comes back to the fish as glaze.

At Shimoda port this single species accounts for something like eight tenths of everything landed. A thousand tons a year pass across the dock. By any measure it is an everyday fish here, the one that turns up on Tuesday because it turned up on the boat.

And yet on a celebration day nobody fillets it. The whole fish is simmered intact and set out on a large platter, head and tail and all. Same species, same sauce, different posture. The fish crosses from ordinary to formal without changing anything but its shape.