Drinking Sake Like a Fish

Posted by Alex in Animal on January 14, 2008 at 3:09 am


There are a lot of strange customs, things and people in Japan, but this one is really odd: forcing a fish to drink sake.

The fish were the drinkers in a strange ceremony dating back to the Edo Period in which lively carp are made to consume a large dose of sake as they symbolically take on people’s calamities. After drinking the sake, the fish are released into a river. [...]

Filled up with sake, the carp at first turned belly-up on the surface of the water. But they soon recovered and swam off.

Link – via Spluch


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13 comments to "Drinking Sake Like a Fish"

  1. James
    January 14th, 2008 at 4:10 am

    The Japanese seem quite nuts ...

  2. Lisa
    January 14th, 2008 at 5:16 am

    After studying the culture for the past five years and now even living in Japan, reading about these sorts of things no longer surprise me. In fact, I'd be *more* surprised if something "odd" weren't always going on around here...

    ...But that makes it somewhat appealing to me. :)

  3. Jon Henshaw
    January 14th, 2008 at 8:08 am

    They also immerse live fish they're going to cook in alcohol too – at least they did on Iron Chef America. It was actually a little disturbing, because the fish didn't look happy about it. The announcer said that it usually isn't so violent, but I didn't believe him for a second.

  4. Mindpimp
    January 14th, 2008 at 9:58 am

    Is that blood pouring from the fish's gills? That must burn like buggery, it's no fun when you accidentally inhale your drink, but for the fish, it's being forced to.

  5. Pudifoot
    January 14th, 2008 at 10:14 am

    I love when things like this. I love when PITA has the piss annoyed out of them. ^.^

  6. Courageous Grace
    January 14th, 2008 at 11:06 am

    What a waste of sake....

  7. Ali S.
    January 14th, 2008 at 1:21 pm

    @ Pudifoot

    I do hope you mean PETA. ;)

  8. John Kenpun
    January 14th, 2008 at 4:14 pm

    I don't recall the context, but the JAPANLAND book & DVD mention another Japanese festival where HORSES are forced to get drunk on sake....must take a bit more than the fish.

  9. Talia
    January 14th, 2008 at 7:03 pm

    I'm very tolerant of all cultures, but this is stupid and cruel.

  10. Thomas
    January 14th, 2008 at 8:52 pm

    They're really nice to their beef though. They're fed rice and sake, and they get massages all the time. Happy cows make for the finest beef in the world.

  11. fluff
    January 15th, 2008 at 11:47 am

    That's extremely cruel.

  12. Pudifoot
    January 15th, 2008 at 10:54 pm

    Ali: I was hoping no-one would catch my typo. *sigh*

  13. Ken
    February 27th, 2008 at 10:40 am

    Funny how some people think it's cruel.

    Am I the only one that thinks they are extremely nice by giving a fish sake? I mean, how often will a fish get to drink sake?


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