Sushi Memorials at Namiyoke Shrine

Even though the original Tsukiji Market’s wholesale and tuna operations moved to Toyosu Market in 2018, the shops and restaurants that once surrounded it remain. To this day, Tsukiji Outer Market, as this area is known, remains one of the best places in Tokyo for fresh seafood. A little off this market neighborhood stands Namiyoke-Inari Jinja, a shrine founded in 1659 as a divine protection from raging waves and tsunami.

On a side of this shrine, you can find a number of tsuka, which literally means “mound” or by extension “grave,” and refers by further extension to stone memorials or stelae erected to thank someone or something. The tsuka at Namiyoke Shrine are unique in that most of them are dedicated to sushi.

The unassuming collection includes memorials for ebi (shrimp or prawn), kombu (kelp), hamaguri (clam), ankō (anglerfish) and tamago (egg), thanking the spirits of these ingredients used in sushi. The egg memorial in particular is notable for its (literally) oval shape; sure, eggs are not seafood, but it’s quite important in sushi as tamagoyaki omelettes and can be found at several eateries in the Outer Market.

There is also a non-sushi-related memorial at Namiyoke Shrine worth mentioning: a monument with the logo of the Yoshinoya fast food chain on it, a bizarre sight in the shrine grounds. This is a commemoration of the first branch of Yoshinoya founded in Tsukiji in 1947, which stood nearby until the fish market was relocated to Toyosu in 2018.