If YouTube viewing figures are anything to go by, there's a lot of people out there — 7 million views and counting — interested in making sushi. For cats.

Similarly, videos of a poodle narrating recipes on how to cook everything from okonomiyaki (savory Japanese pancakes) to teriyaki chicken pizza pull in hundreds of thousands of views.

Welcome to the world of YouTubers making Japanese food who, shot by shot, are unravelling the vast canon of washoku (Japanese cuisine) for an audience of millions around the world in ways that a cookbook never could, or probably would.