The article examines the importance of fish in the gastronomic culture
of Japan in the early Middle Ages based on the stories of the setsuwa prose
collection "Uji shui monogatari", XIII century. The stories convey reverence and an obvious shortage of fish in the diet of the capital's residents,
however, the study revealed such reasons for such a display of this problem, such as the remoteness of the capital of Kyoto from the sea, the high
sacred value of capital rivers, the role of Shintoism and rich folklore and
mythological symbolism of fish