It has been forty-six years since Henry Winkler jumped the shark in an episode of the American sitcom Happy Days (1974-1984). Well, it was really the stuntman who actually did the jumping, but let’s not quibble. Decades on, it still resonates, not necessarily because Henry and the shark were especially histrionic or engaged in meaningful dialogue, but because it identified a phenomenon that occurs in other settings, as well, and led to an idiom that has been used to describe it—“to jump the shark.” This is defined as follows by Wiktionary: “To experience a decline in quality, appeal, popularity, etc.” But we prefer the definition used in a recent article appearing in Yahoo Entertainment1, “creative bankruptcy.” Our readers can easily see how use of this idiom might surface in a variety of settings. For example, “Patronage was plummeting at Chez Chunky, so Chef Chunky Chuckie started to apply his renowned reduction sauce to the roast beef with a bicycle pump. We all realized at that point that he had jumped the shark, which made the staff rather jumpy, to say the least.”
All this fish talk got us thinking about hire-zake, a curious combination that works for some, including this writer. Simply put, it is heated nihonshu with a grilled fin in it. This piscine appendage is usually taken from the always exciting and exotic fugu or sea bream.
The hire-zake we tasted was made by Kizakura, a major sake brewery located in Kyoto. It is pictured below, along with the box it came in, which features an interesting backstory. It has, unsurprisingly, a fishy nose. On the palate, it is a futsū-shu (ordinary sake), whose flavor has been enhanced by both the presence of the fin and the heating process. The ABV is 16%. The overall experience is quite pleasant especially, for some reason, in winter. There is a subtle soup-like quality to the drink.
1Alter, E. “Henry Winkler Is ‘Very Proud’ to Be the Face of the ‘Jump the Shark’ Meme,” Yahoo Entertainment, September 26, 2023.
Drinking Japan 