I have heard since I was a child in Kyoto and Osaka that sea bream must come from the Genkai Sea to be tasty.

I was told that sea bream that had passed through the Genkai Sea had wart-like beads on its bones.　In 1928, I traveled to Korea to explore the ruins of old kilns and collect raw materials for pottery. The period of my visit was from May 1 to 30. The itinerary covered the entire Korean Peninsula from Gyeongseong to the east. On the way back, he toured along the rocky coastline of Gokpo Beach toward Suncheon, Masan, and Busan. In these regions, however, he was inadvertently treated to an abundance of extremely delicious sea bream sashimi. The sashimi of the sea bream was far more delicious than the Akashi sea bream I had ever tasted before.　After that, I never tired of tasting sea bream everywhere I went, and was often impressed by the taste. In fact, the sea bream was too good to be left to the locals and the people who had moved to the area. It was too good to be served only to the locals who had moved to the area. The taste is unforgettable to this day.　Originally, Korea was a place where both poultry and fish tasted terrible, and during my stay in Gyeongseong, I never once had a piece of good fish. Even during my stay in Korea in 1928, I had difficulty in eating food. I was convinced that there was no such thing as fish. I had never heard of any tasty sea bream being caught in the Masan area. But, as it turned out, I happened to stumble upon this delicious fish by accident, and I couldn’t help but be amazed.

I was surprised at this unexpected find.　I looked up where these wonderful sea breams were being sold, and found out that a boat from Shimonoseki came to the offshore fishing grounds to buy them, and that many of them were being taken to the mainland.　On a different note, one of my memories of tai is of a time when I spent a long time in the Hokuriku region from Yamashiro and Yamanaka hot springs to the Kanazawa area for research on Kutani-yaki pottery. Originally, Hokuriku was a region where, aside from specialty fish such as sardines, cod, sea cucumbers, crabs, and amaebi (sweet shrimp), the fish in general were not very tasty. In particular, sea bream is so bad compared to the southern Sea of Japan that it is not even a problem. However, in the Kaga Sea, around May or June, one sometimes encounters sea bream fishing using a special fishing method called “sea bream net,” as it is popularly called in the region. The fish caught in these nets are almost the same as Akashi sea bream, and are surprisingly tasty. The sea bream usually caught in this region is inferior to Akashi sea bream.

Yet, the sea bream caught only during this season is not at all different from Akashi sea bream.　It is said that people in this region used to eat sea bream and boast that it was much tastier than Akashi sea bream, which angered people in the Kansai region, but this boast cannot be denied.　I wondered how such delicious sea bream could be caught in the Hokuriku region at this time of year, but I finally understood the reason. In other words, the season of April and May is the time when Akashi-dai, the original Akashi fish, is especially tasty, and when you consider all these factors, the fact that sea bream comes over the Genkai Sea means that it grows at the southern tip of Korea, where reefs and islands exist like a beehive. Once in their hive, most of them spawn, or for some other reason, they migrate eastward toward Japan, and on their way, i.e., pushing through the Genkai Sea, they migrate eastward, with the majority entering the Seto Inland Sea, or splitting off to Kyushu or Tosa.

A small portion of the others also migrate to the back of Japan, and those that are not usually seen are probably caught in the nets only during their spawning season.　Every year in the Hokuriku region, it takes until autumn to catch all of this excellent sea bream, but there are still some left over, and while not out of season, they are still very tasteless. Although there are some, it is due to the white sands and reefs of Jangjeong, the scarcity of good food, and reproduction, etc. Although the seeds are good, they are gradually becoming tasteless due to changes in living conditions.　I would like to go back to Korea to try the sea bream. The food around Suncheon and Masan is truly unforgettable.　Generally, people only think of Joseon sea bream as a tasteless red fish caught by trawlers, and I had never heard that Joseon could produce very good sea bream, but I am not fooling myself.