The “super-thick” ehomaki is a luxurious way to ensure good luck for your home and family in the coming year.
With just one week left to go until Christmas, many people are rushing to get their present and party preparations finished. Here at SoraNews24, though, we’re always looking one step farther ahead…right? Or was it that we’re always thinking about food?
Actually, today both of those things can be true, because we just got back from attending an ehomaki unveiling event.
If you’re a passionate sushi fan, you’ll recognize maki as the Japanese word for “roll,” as in a sushi roll. The “eho” part of ehomaki translates loosely to “lucky direction,” because ehomaki are special sushi rolls that you’re supposed to eat on the Japanese holiday called Setsubun, which marked the traditional start of spring. Just eating ehomaki on Setsubun isn’t enough to earn blessings of prosperity, though, you’ve got to make sure you’re facing in the year’s auspicious direction while you bite into the roll, hence the “ehomaki” name.
Setsubun, which takes place on February 3, is a special occasion, so ehomaki tend to be pretty luxurious. Since sushi technically refers to vinegared rice, they don’t always have to have raw fish inside, and ehomaki with things like fried shrimp or even meat can be found in the modern era. Seafood remains the most popular type of filling, though, and at this ehomaki preview event, hosted by Japanese supermarket chain Aeon, they were showing off a new ehomaki that feels like it’ll provide a taste of the entire ocean because of its huge size and number of fillings.
Called the Gokubutomaki (“Super-thick Roll”), Aeon boasts that it has 26 different fillings, aside from rice and seaweed, including various kinds of tuna, shrimp, scallops, Japanese omelet, oba (Japanese basil), ikura (salmon roe), grilled salmon, and nianago (stewed saltwater eel). It measures 14 centimeters (5.5 inches) in width and weighs 1.7 kilograms (3.7 pounds), making it the heaviest ehomaki Aeon has ever sold.
Obviously, this was something we needed to see for ourselves, and so when the event staff said that their on-site sushi chef would be demonstrating how the Gokubutomaki is made, we hurried on over to his workspace.
The first step is to lay out the sheet of nori (seaweed) that’ll serve as the wrapping, and then to add the rice. It’s a little hard to see in photos, but the rice has to be piled higher on the sides, forming small embankments to keep everything that’s going to come next securely in place.
Then, one by one, the other ingredients are added…
…until all 26 of them have joined the party.
The number of fillings means that the chef needs to use a very long piece of nori, and so the Gokubutomaki has to be wrapped around itself more than once to form a cylinder, but when it’s done, it’s a thing of very heavy beauty.
As we mentioned above, you’re supposed to eat ehomaki, or at least eat the first bite, while holding the uncut roll in both hands. Unless you’re capable of stretching your jaws to a predatory-snake degree to get your entire mouth around this thing, though, you’re probably going to have to settle for biting off a corner piece of the Gokubutomaki.
The Gokubutomaki is priced at 6,458 yen (US$42), but considering that it’s far more than any one person is likely to eat by themselves, it doesn’t seem like a bad value at all. Preorders open through the Aeon website here on January 10.
Oh, and the lucky direction for Setsubun 2026 is south-southeast. Just make sure you’ve got a good grip on the Gokubutomaki if you’re making it your ehomaki choice this year, since it’ll probably hurt surprisingly badly if you drop it on your toes.
Photos ©SoraNews24
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