Sasa-kamaboko
Sasa-kamaboko is a processed fish loaf made from pureed white fish
(e.g. flounder), which is baked into bamboo leaf (sasa) shaped loaves.
This delicacy will tease your appetite with its delicious fish taste and
pleasant aroma.
● 笹
tì ㄊㄧˋ 竹葉
◎ 同“屉”（日本汉字）。
English
small bamboo leaf
Keiji Sasaki, founder of Sasakei Co.
in Natori, Miyagi Prefecture, and his wife, Atsu, make local specialty
"sasakama" by hand. (Shintaro Hirama)
Fish cake company rebounds from tsunami the old-fashioned way
NATORI, Miyagi Prefecture--When disaster-hit Sasakei
Co. reopened a factory in September, its president ordered employees not
to switch entirely to the long-awaited machines to produce the
company’s popular local specialty.
The backward-looking decision has already paid dividends for the company, the maker of “sasa kamaboko” bamboo leaf-shaped fish cakes, and its chief, Keisuke Sasaki, who nearly abandoned all hope after losing three factories in the tsunami last year.
The company continues to make the specialty, also called “sasakama,” the old-fashioned way—by hand.
“It’s a place where tradition had almost been forgotten,” Sasaki said.
After the March 11 tsunami swept away Sasakei’s main store building in Natori’s Yuriage district, the 61-year-old president said he thought about closing the company. However, loyal customers urged him to stay in business, and he decided to persevere.
But he was at a loss on how to produce sasakama without the machines.
That’s when his father, Keiji Sasaki, the company’s founder, and his mother, Atsu, re-entered the picture.
Keiji, 90, and Atsu, 84, who had retired from the front line about 10 years ago, knew how to make filleted fish into paste by hand.
The couple brought a grindstone to an inland store that had escaped damage from the waves and tried to teach the traditional method of making sasakama to the young employees. A succession of failures followed, including shrinkage of the product. The young workers often burned their hands in the grilling process.
It took a month until they finally got the hang of it.
Old-fashioned sasakama’s reputation for a “soft and mild sweetness” and a “nostalgic taste” soon attracted new customers.
Sasakei was founded in 1966 in the Yuriage district, which was devastated by last year’s tsunami. The new factory, remodeled in July 2011, was built at the inland outlet.
On a busy day in December for the year-end gift-giving season, Keiji and Atsu were patiently pounding the soft and spongy cod fish paste by hand before fixing it into the shape of a bamboo leaf.
The couple and the young employees now produce 3,000 to 4,000 pieces of sasakama a day.
“(Hand-made sasa-kamaboko) has an original taste,” Keisuke Sasaki said. “I want to keep the technique my father passed on alive.”
The backward-looking decision has already paid dividends for the company, the maker of “sasa kamaboko” bamboo leaf-shaped fish cakes, and its chief, Keisuke Sasaki, who nearly abandoned all hope after losing three factories in the tsunami last year.
The company continues to make the specialty, also called “sasakama,” the old-fashioned way—by hand.
“It’s a place where tradition had almost been forgotten,” Sasaki said.
After the March 11 tsunami swept away Sasakei’s main store building in Natori’s Yuriage district, the 61-year-old president said he thought about closing the company. However, loyal customers urged him to stay in business, and he decided to persevere.
But he was at a loss on how to produce sasakama without the machines.
That’s when his father, Keiji Sasaki, the company’s founder, and his mother, Atsu, re-entered the picture.
Keiji, 90, and Atsu, 84, who had retired from the front line about 10 years ago, knew how to make filleted fish into paste by hand.
The couple brought a grindstone to an inland store that had escaped damage from the waves and tried to teach the traditional method of making sasakama to the young employees. A succession of failures followed, including shrinkage of the product. The young workers often burned their hands in the grilling process.
It took a month until they finally got the hang of it.
Old-fashioned sasakama’s reputation for a “soft and mild sweetness” and a “nostalgic taste” soon attracted new customers.
Sasakei was founded in 1966 in the Yuriage district, which was devastated by last year’s tsunami. The new factory, remodeled in July 2011, was built at the inland outlet.
On a busy day in December for the year-end gift-giving season, Keiji and Atsu were patiently pounding the soft and spongy cod fish paste by hand before fixing it into the shape of a bamboo leaf.
The couple and the young employees now produce 3,000 to 4,000 pieces of sasakama a day.
“(Hand-made sasa-kamaboko) has an original taste,” Keisuke Sasaki said. “I want to keep the technique my father passed on alive.”
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