Autumn's silvery little fish, the sanma, has arrived. To officially mark the beginning of the season, the annual Meguro Sanma Festival — which is celebrating its 20th anniversary this year — was held last weekend in Tokyo, where sanma were grilled and offered to a crowd of over 30,000.
Sanma (literally "autumn swordfish") is also known as Pacific saury or mackerel pike in English. They caught off the northeastern shores of Japan as the fish annually migrates south from Hokkaido, and are one of the most prominent autumn foods in Japanese cuisine. Rich in protein and unsaturated fatty acids, sanma was traditionally eaten to prepare the body for the coming winter months.
Japan may be one of the countries that consumes the highest number of fish each year, but its self-sufficiency rate for fish products has been on a steady decline since it peaked in 1964 — the rate currently stands at around 60 percent according to the Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries Ministry.