Fuka means shark. Along the Nanyo coast they come in at around a meter: isaba-fuka, mabuka, hoshibuka. The account of how the dish started is blunt. Fishermen had sharks they could not sell, so they dressed them with vinegared miso and ate them with a drink.

The preparation is not blunt at all. The shark goes into a large volume of hot water and comes straight back out. The rough skin is then scrubbed off with a soft brush. It is filleted into three, steeped in brine, boiled for around two minutes, and dropped into cold water.

What goes with it is a mustard-vinegar miso: barley miso ground in a suribachi, mustard worked in, then vinegar and sugar to taste.

Start in the morning and you finish in the evening. That is why almost nobody makes it at home any more and only a small number of producers still do it. It has survived anyway, because in this part of Ehime a hachimori platter for a festival is not considered complete without it. In Uwajima it is spoken of in the same terms as good sashimi. The meat has some spring to it, and the fin has a crispness worth the trouble. A fish that could not be sold, given a full day's work, and set on the table for a celebration.