Small horse mackerel come into the Seto Inland Sea from summer into autumn, reaching about fifteen centimeters by the time they are at their best.

The way people got hold of them says something about how this coast worked. If you helped haul the beach seine, adult or child, the fishermen would hand you a share of the aji and sardines. Payment in fish, for an afternoon of pulling rope. That was the raw material.

The fish are grilled first and then steeped in sanbaizu, the three-part vinegar dressing, with chili, chopped ginger, and slivered myoga added into it as aromatics. Time in the vinegar softens the bones until the whole fish can be eaten, head and all, and it also keeps: a batch made on a hot day in July is still perfectly good several days afterward.

It has long been drinking food at summer festivals. Which is to say that the arrangement is complete and circular. You are given fish for helping, you turn the fish into something that will not spoil in August, and then you eat it at the festival with a cup of something cold. The dish is the final step in a system that no longer operates, and it has comfortably outlived the system it was the end of.