Dried herring and daikon, packed together in amazake made from rice and koji, and then left alone for somewhere between seven and ten days while the whole thing ferments.

Kaga has two of these fermented preparations. The other is kaburazushi, made with turnip, and the division between them is social rather than technical. Kaburazushi belongs to the new year and to formal occasions. Daikonzushi is the one people actually made on ordinary days.

The herring came south on the kitamaebune, the ships that ran the Japan Sea route carrying rice and fish from Hokkaido down toward Edo and Osaka. Herring arrived in large enough quantities that ordinary households could afford it, which is the reason a coastal preserve built on a northern fish took root here at all.

In Kanazawa the daikon is cut into batons and packed with small pieces of herring and carrot. In snowier districts, koji is used instead of amazake, which turns sour too easily in the cold. In some places the daikon is cut into rounds with salted mackerel or salmon laid between them. The same underlying idea, apparently worked out separately in each valley, using whatever fish had reached it.