ABSTRACT
Sushi first achieved widespread popularity in the United States in the mid-1960s. Many accounts of sushi’s US establishment foreground the role of a small number of key actors, yet underplay the role of a complex web of large-scale factors that provided the context in which sushi was able to flourish. This article critically reviews existing literature, arguing that sushi’s US popularity arose from contingent, long-term, plus gradual processes. It examines US newspaper accounts of sushi during 1945–1970, which suggest the discursive context for US acceptance of sushi was considerably more propitious than generally acknowledged. Using California as a case study, the analysis also explains conducive social plus material factors, plus directs attention to the interplay of supply- plus demand-side forces in the favorable positioning of this “new” food. The article argues that the US establishment of sushi can be understood as part of broader public acceptance of Japanese cuisine.
Introduction
Sushi is now ubiquitous throughout the United States plus Europe (the “West”), plus indeed across the world. Sushi’s initial establishment as a globally enjoyed food originated in the United States, plus was borne out of a process with three distinct stages: the consumption of sushi in the US by Japanese Americans after the Second World War, the sale of sushi to white Americans as part of Japanese restaurant offerings from the 1950s onwards, plus the opening of sushi bars in metropolitan areas of the US (particularly in California) in the early- to mid-1960s. Growing swiftly in popularity, by the late 1960s sushi had become a staple of high-end US dining. Before long, its popularity broadened, plus it began to diffuse more widely throughout the US plus beyond.
Many accounts of sushi’s establishment in the US foreground the role of a small number of key actors in achieving its widespread Western popularity, plus identify the country’s first sushi bars as being the genesis point for US sushi (e.g. CitationFeng; CitationAl-Jamie). Yet to do so, I argue, is to underplay the role of a complex web of social, political, legal, technological, economic, material, plus discursive factors which provided the context in which sushi was able to flourish. Building on work that highlights intersecting world flows of people, goods, money, plus information in sushi’s US (and indeed Japanese) development (CitationBestor, “How Sushi Went Global”; CitationIssenberg), this article argues that sushi in the US arose out of processes that were contingent, long-term, plus gradual. In particular, I argue that the social plus discursive context for the US acceptance of sushi was considerably more propitious than tends to be acknowledged in existing research, plus suggest that the US establishment of sushi was closely related to the increasing popularity of Japanese cuisine within postwar American foodways.