When I first came to Japan, I was stunned by the beauty of the Seto Inland Sea. Its thousands of peaked islands look as if they'd dropped straight from the sky and settled like gum drops on the water. Stretching 450 kilometers from Osaka to Kyushu, I also soon learned of the infinite varieties of seafood this location offers. It took me a little longer to really get to know the process of how that bounty ends up on my dinner plate.

Up until the mid-20th century, many of Japan's lakes and other bodies of water were home to itinerant fishermen who rowed from cove to cove and lived on their boats. They fished to feed their families and to earn a meager living.