History of Sushi Timeline

The inventor of modern sushi is believed to be Hanaya Yohei, who invented nigiri-sushi during the Edo period in 1824. This is the type of sushi most known today, in which seafood is placed on hand-pressed vinegared rice. One common story of its origin is of chef Hanaya Yohei (1799–1858), who invented or perfected the technique at his shop in Ryōgoku.

Image source: Hanaya Yohei

A deal resulted with Japanese company Nichirei for 5000 tons of salmon which started salmon sushi consumption in Japan.

There is mention of sushi in a Japanese-English dictionary from 1873, and an 1879 article on Japanese cookery in the journal Notes and Queries.

The 1879 best-selling book A Tour Around the World by General Grant by James Dabney McCabe describes former president Ulysses S. Grant dining on sushi during his travels in Japan.

The Oxford English Dictionary notes the earliest written mention of sushi in an 1893 book, Japanese Interiors, where it mentions that "Domestics served us with tea and sushi or rice sandwiches".

According to Miller, the earliest published mention of sushi eaten by an American, in America, was an 18 August 1904 article in the Los Angeles Herald about a luncheon served in Santa Monica by the socialite Fern Dell Higgins.

Popularity of Japanese food peaked around 1905 when it was being served at Japanese-themed social gatherings across the United States, including in midwestern cities such as Minneapolis, Minnesota.

A sushi restaurant reportedly opened in 1906 in the Little Tokyo neighborhood of Los Angeles.

Several years later, a wave of anti-Japanese nativism sentiments and restrictions on Japanese immigration, starting with the Gentlemen's Agreement of 1907, caused a subsequent decline in the acceptance of Japanese cuisine.

Image source: Gentlemen's agreement

A Los Angeles restaurant had been in business at least since 1938 or 1939, and by 1949, it was back serving sushi (featuring local bluefin tuna) for lunch.

A report of sushi being consumed in Britain occurred when the then Crown Prince Akihito visited Queen Elizabeth II at the time of her coronation in May 1953.

Image source: Akihito

Although sushi was first served in Canada with the first arrivals of Japanese immigrants during the 19th century, it was not until changes to immigration rules in the 1960s that it started becoming widely available.

The California roll was also invented in Vancouver by Hidekazu in 1974 using barbecued salmon.

Image source: California roll

Vancouver went from 3 sushi outlets in 1976 to more than 600 in 2014, a larger number per capita than in Canada's largest city Toronto.

When David Bowie played in Auckland in 1983 as part of the Serious Moonlight Tour, it was rumoured his contract rider stated that sushi be on the menu, which at the time was rare and exotic in New Zealand, and typically served only in high-end city restaurants.

Image source: Serious Moonlight Tour

St Pierre's was originally established as a seafood delicatessen in Wellington in 1984 before becoming a nationwide food franchise serving sushi.

Image source: Georges St-Pierre

St Pierre's, a nationwide food franchise, officially began serving sushi in 1993, after originally being established as a seafood delicatessen in Wellington in 1984.

The Australian-style sushi roll is now becoming known worldwide, with the opening of the first Australian-style sushi store in New York in 2023.

The Australian-style sushi roll continued its worldwide spread with the opening of the first store in the UK in 2024.

In 1958, Yoshiaki Shiraishi opened the first conveyor belt sushi restaurant (回転寿司, kaiten-zushi) named "Genroku Zushi" in Higashi-Osaka.

Image source: Conveyor belt sushi

When Genroku Sushi opened a restaurant at the Japan World Exposition, Osaka, 1970, it won an award at the expo, and conveyor belt sushi restaurants became known throughout Japan.

In 1973, an automatic tea dispenser was developed, which is now used in conveyor belt sushi restaurants today.

The first known sushi conveyor belt in Australia appeared in Queensland in 1993, when Sushi Train opened its first restaurant.

By 2021, the conveyor belt sushi market had grown to 700 billion yen and spread outside Japan.