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Preparing for Auction
Photograph by James L. Stanfield
Tsukiji is a fish market in the sense that the Grand Canyon is a ditch or Caruso was a crooner. Among the wholesale fish markets of the world, Tsukiji ranks at the top in every measurable category. It handles more than 400 different types of seafood, from penny-per-piece sardines to golden brown dried sea slug caviar, a bargain at (U.S.) $473 a pound. It imports from 60 countries on six continents.
Frozen assets, bluefin tuna worth top yen are readied for Tsukiji's morning auction. The market's clamorous labyrinth of stalls showcases all manner of seafood—from live sea eel to pickled octopus—and reflects the well-ordered confusion of Japanese society. Says Tsukiji scholar Ted Bestor, "Tsukiji reveals as much about Japanese culture as it does about Japanese cuisine."
— From "Tsukiji: The Great Tokyo Fish Market," November 1995, National Geographic magazine
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Fish Vendor Stalls
Photograph by James L. Stanfield
Tsukiji moves about five million pounds (2,268,000 kilograms) of seafood every day—seven times as much as Paris's Rungis, the world's second largest wholesale market, and 11 times the volume of New York City's Fulton Fish Market, the largest fish market in North America. In dollar terms, that comes to about (U.S.) 28 million dollars' worth of fish per day.
— From "Tsukiji: The Great Tokyo Fish Market," November 1995, National Geographic magazine
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Fish Market Auctioneer
Photograph by James L. Stanfield
A torrent of transactions wrings sweat from auctioneer Masami Eguchi, who sells 200 tuna in half an hour, or about one every nine seconds. "I have to recognize the highest bidder instantly," Eguchi says. "No delays are allowed."
— From "Tsukiji: The Great Tokyo Fish Market," November 1995, National Geographic magazine
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Tuna in High Demand
Photograph by James L. Stanfield
Longer than a man and weighing from 200 to 1,000 pounds (91 to 454 kilograms) each, hundreds of tuna arrive in Japan by cargo jet every day. So voracious is the Japanese appetite for fish that even the swordfish caught by a tourist off the coast of Florida is more likely these days to end up frozen in Tsukiji than stuffed on the fisherman's wall.
— From "Tsukiji: The Great Tokyo Fish Market," November 1995, National Geographic magazine
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Halving a Bluefin
Photograph by James L. Stanfield
Wielding a sword-long knife, fishmonger Motojiro Nakata halves a bluefin purchased at the morning auction. Thinly sliced and served with other raw delicacies as sashimi, the translucent flesh delights the eye as well as the palate. Japan's craving for such fare incites relentless fishing—and concerns about dwindling bluefin stocks.
— From "Tsukiji: The Great Tokyo Fish Market," November 1995, National Geographic magazine
