The small clay pot comes to a boil and the dark broth climbs up around a fan of loach fillets resting on shaved burdock. You pour the beaten egg in a ring. At the edges it sets into soft ribbons while the middle stays loose and glossy. A scatter of mitsuba goes on, the heat goes off, and the pot reaches the table still bubbling, with a pinch of ground sansho waiting beside it. Yanagawa nabe is a Tokyo pot of opened, boned loach simmered in a soy and mirin broth and bound with egg. The loach is mild and tender, the burdock gives an earthy crunch and a deep root aroma, and the broth tastes savory and gently sweet without any sugar.
A Loach Pot From the Rivers of Edo
Strength food in a city without meat
In the Edo period, eating the meat of animals was forbidden, and loach sat alongside carp and eel as a fish people turned to for strength. Loach and burdock were both thought of as stamina foods, and the pair was eaten mainly in summer. Today the pot is eaten all year round. The neighborhoods that carry the tradition are Asakusa and Komagata in Taitō ward and Takahashi in Kōtō ward, along the old waterways of the east side of the city.
Tokyo cooks loach in more than one way, and the three are easy to mix up. In maru-nabe, live loach goes into boiling sake until it is stunned, then cooks whole in warishita broth in an iron pan. In nuki-nabe, loach that has been split down the back and boned simmers with burdock. Yanagawa nabe takes the opened fish, simmers it in warishita, and closes it with shaved burdock and beaten egg. The egg is what marks it out, turning a dish of fish and root into something soft and spoonable. Loach itself is lean and light-tasting, so the egg and the broth carry the richness.
The oldest loach house in the city, Komagata Dozeu, opened in 1801. Its name was first written dojau, in four kana. After the great fire of 1806, the founder, Echigoya Sukeshichi, changed it to the three-kana dozeu, because four characters were thought to bring bad luck. Around Asakusa, old houses such as Komagata Dozeu, Iidaya, Iseki and Hirai still keep the taste of Tokyo loach cooking alive.
A name with two stories
Where the name comes from is not settled. One story says the shallow pan used for the dish was a clay pot fired in Yanagawa, in Kyushu. Another says Yanagawa was the name of a small eating house, either in Nihonbashi or in Senzoku village near Asakusa. Both are told, and neither has won.
The town of Yanagawa in Fukuoka Prefecture has its own long love of the dish. It is a canal town known for its punt rides and as the birthplace of the poet Kitahara Hakushū, and alongside its famous eel steamed in a wooden seiro, loach yanagawa nabe cooked in a shallow clay pot has been eaten there for generations. Whether the Tokyo pot and the Yanagawa table share a single beginning is part of the same open question. You can find more home cooking from across Japan on the site.
Ingredients (serves 4)
The broth is four parts dashi to one part each of sake, mirin and dark soy, and nothing else. The sweetness comes from mirin alone, which keeps the pot clean-tasting and lets the burdock come through.
This dish contains egg and fish (loach). Check the labels on your dashi, soy sauce and mirin, since dashi can be made from bonito, kombu, shiitake and other ingredients.
Equipment
- Individual shallow clay pots (donabe), one per person
- A small saucepan for the broth
- A flat wooden board for laying out the loach
- A kettle of boiling water
- A bowl of ice water
- A table knife for scraping
- A kitchen knife and cutting board
- A bowl of water for the burdock
Buying the Loach and Choosing Swaps
Everything depends on getting loach that is already opened and boned. Loach specialists and mail-order shops sell it this way. Supermarket availability varies widely by region. Live, whole loach belongs to maru-nabe and needs a different method entirely, so it does not fit the steps below. There is no swap for the fish itself; this pot is built around it.
The rest of the shopping is easy, and each choice nudges the flavor in its own direction.
| Ingredient | Swap | What changes |
|---|---|---|
| Dashi | Bonito dashi or kombu dashi | Bonito gives a smoky, savory depth; kombu is rounder and quieter |
| Dark soy sauce | Light soy (usukuchi) or white soy | The broth turns paler and the saltiness shifts |
| Fresh shiitake | Maitake or enoki | More savoriness, but a different texture from thin shiitake slices |
| Mitsuba | Seri (Japanese parsley) | A sharper, greener fragrance |
| Ground sansho | Shichimi tōgarashi | Chili heat in place of sansho's citrus tingle |
Some kitchens sweeten the broth with sugar, and some cook loach in a miso broth. Adding sugar or miso moves the pot toward a different dish, a sweet-salty warishita or a miso-based loach soup, so make it first with the plain four-to-one broth.
Slice every cap to the same thickness. In the clay pot, the mushrooms and burdock cook only as long as it takes the egg to set, so even slices come out evenly tender.
Method
The work splits into two halves. First comes the prep: shave and soak the burdock, slice the shiitake and mitsuba, make the broth, then scald, chill and scrape the loach and cook it through in the broth. Then each clay pot is built and finished at the stove, one by one, and the second half moves fast once the egg goes in. Have every pot assembled before you heat the first.
Loach can carry a parasite. Never eat it raw, and cook it through to the center. In this method the loach is cooked twice, once in the broth and again in the clay pot; keep both heatings. When you pour boiling water and lift fish out of ice water, keep your hands clear of the stream, and handle hot clay pots with a thick cloth.
The egg is left half-set. If you cook for pregnant women, older people, infants or anyone with a weak immune system, keep the heat on until the egg is firm all the way through.
The finish takes only moments per pot. With each pot already holding its bed, fish and broth, you can boil, pour and stop one after another and keep every egg soft.
When It Goes Wrong
| What you see | Why | What to do |
|---|---|---|
| Slime still on the skin, cloudy broth | The scald was too light or the scrape was skipped | Scald until the skin whitens, chill in ice water right away, and scrape every fillet |
| Loach falling apart | Pressed too hard while scraping, or boiled hard in the broth | Scrape with a flat, light knife and keep the broth at a gentle boil |
| Burdock tastes of nothing | It sat too long in the water | Soak only until the water starts to clear, drain, and use it soon after |
| Egg dry and rubbery | It went in before the boil, or the pot stayed on the heat too long | Wait for the boil, pour, and turn off while the egg is half-set; the clay finishes the rest |
| Scorching on the bottom | Loach touching bare clay, or the broth cooked down | Lay the burdock and shiitake bed first and keep the broth just covering the fish |
| Too salty or too flat | The broth was adjusted before tasting the base mix | Make the four-to-one broth first, then change only the soy next time |
Serving and Variations
Each pot goes to the table bubbling, one per person, with the ground sansho passed around so everyone sprinkles their own. The egg keeps softening into the broth as you eat, so start with the loach while the egg is at its silkiest, then spoon up the burdock and broth from the bottom. It is a pot to eat straight from the stove.
Variations
- Yanagawa-don. Spoon the finished pot over a bowl of rice. The full amount of broth makes the rice too strong, so drain the toppings a little or add only a small amount of broth.
- Shichimi instead of sansho. Shichimi tōgarashi swaps sansho's citrus tingle for warm chili heat and a nuttier finish.
- Other mushrooms. Maitake or enoki in place of shiitake deepen the savoriness, though the pot loses the soft chew of thin shiitake slices.
- Egg in two pours. Pour half the egg, let it set, then pour the rest over the top for a fluffier, layered finish. It makes the half-set moment harder to judge, so watch the second pour closely.
Frequently asked questions
I only have individual pots for two. Can I make it in one larger pot?
Yes. Use a shallow pot with thick walls, lay the bed, fan all the loach over it, and pour in broth to just cover. The egg sets less evenly across a wide surface than in small pots, so pour it in a wide spiral and turn the heat off a little earlier.
Why is the loach cooked twice?
The first simmer in the broth cooks the fish through and seasons it. The second, in the clay pot, heats everything together and sets the egg. Keep both, since the loach must always be fully cooked.
Can I use whole live loach?
Not for this dish. Live, whole loach is the basis of maru-nabe, where it is stunned in sake and cooked bones and all. Yanagawa nabe needs fillets that are already opened and boned.
