The community of Ina in Nagano Prefecture is trying to preserve its dying tradition of catching and cooking local aquatic insects by encouraging younger people to learn the skills as its catchers age.
Caddisfly and stonefly larvae, colloquially known as zazamushi (zaza insects), can be caught upstream in the Tenryu River near the city of Ina. The catches are often made into type of tsukudani — a common Japanese dish cooked by simmering a wide variety of ingredients such as fish, clam or seaweed in soy sauce, mirin (rice wine), sugar and sake.
The word "zaza" is said to originate from the sound the river, where the insects, once a historically valuable source of protein, live and breed.