Shark, freshly dressed, is cut into slices a little thinner than sashimi. They go through hot water for a moment, then straight into cold to firm up. What they are eaten with is a Shima miso sauce, heavily fermented and heavily salted, strong enough to stand up to the fish rather than accompany it.

In Waguri, in Shima, the spread laid out for celebrations is called tebiki ryori. In Koshika it is called sahachi ryori. This dish appears in both, which means that whatever else changes between two villages a few kilometers apart, this stays.

The reason given for its presence surprised me. The character for shark, same, contains within it the character meaning to join or to cross. Because of that, it belongs at auspicious occasions. I had been expecting an explanation about flavor, or about nutrition, or about what the sea provided in winter. Instead it was about the shape of a written word.

So it turns up at the barrel-delivery that seals an engagement, at weddings, at the celebration marking a dangerous year safely passed, at an eighty-eighth birthday. A fish chosen, in the end, because of the way its name happens to be built on the page.