The neurotoxin in the blowfish can be deadly, and it takes knowledge and skill to prepare it safely, research suggests that Japanese people have been eating blowfish since the Jomon period, as evidenced by the many blowfish bones that have been excavated from shell middens dating back to those prehistoric times. Although a meal of blowfish was often fatal, and the fish was banned in many places in Japan during the Edo period, but the people of Shimonoseki still ate blowfish on a daily basis, removing the bones and skin and cooking only the meat. 

Blowfish soup 
Although there is a sea bream 
It is thoughtless 

MATSUO Basho (1644-1694) 

Blowfish soup 
I awoke 
And found myself alive! 

YOSA Buson (1716-1784) 

In the Meiji era, the sale of fresh blowfish was banned throughout Japan. However, when ITO Hirobumi (Japan's first prime minister, 1841-1909) visited Shimonoseki at a time of poor fish catches due to rough weather, Shunpanro, a restaurant and guest house where he was staying, was unable to prepare fish and served blowfish even assuming punishment. ITO was so impressed by the taste that he lobbied the Yamaguchi prefectural governor to lift the ban on blowfish eating. As a result, Shunpanro was officially licensed as the first restaurant authorized to serve blowfish. With that, blowfish cuisine began to spread throughout Japan. (Currently licensed in compliance to ordinances of each prefecture) 

In Japan, where fishing has been practiced since ancient times, fishing and fish have also been the subject of poetry, and were included in the Manyoshu.

The sea of Kei seems to be calm. Fishermen's fishing boats can be seen in the distance above the waves like mowed straws.

By Kakinomoto no Hitomaro, in Manyoshu

The sea of Kei is the Haimanada Sea, which viewed from Keinomatsubara in the west of Awaji Island. Kakinomoto no Hitomaro, who was sometimes sent to the countryside as an official, describes how fishing boats paddle out from place to place as if floating cut out pieces of straw stalks were widely spreading on a calm sea.

It can be heard all the way to the palace. The call of the fisherman who is preparing the nets to be pulled.

By Naganoimiki Okimaro, in Manyoshu

The poem is about Emperor Jito's visit to Naniwanomiya Palace, and how the call of the fisherman instructing the nets to pull the nets was heard all the way to the palace. 

Fishing has existed in one form or another since the Jomon period, but it was not until the early Edo period that it became a kind of leisure-time activity. Fishing became popular among samurai who had plenty of time to spare in Edo, a city with a network of waterways and the rich sea in front of it. At the same time, fishermen from Do-no-ura in Naruto near Osaka discovered that tegusu (used to tie luggage in Osaka) was suitable for fishing line, with its transparence, which could not be seen by fish, and it contributed greatly to the boom in sport fishing. 

Although banned for a time by the decree to protect animals issued by shogun TOKUGAWA Tsunayoshi, fishing was quickly revived after Tsunayoshi's death. In the late Edo period, the number of fishing lovers expanded to the general public, and for the first time in Edo, boathouses were opened to offer fishing and tempura on a yakatabune, which became very popular. 

The sight of people fishing became quite common, and many painters, including KATSUSHIKA Hokusai, KITAGAWA Utamaro, UTAGAWA Hiroshige, UTAGAWA Toyokuni, and UTAGAWA Kuniyoshi, used fishing as subjects for their art. 

Classical rakugo, which was established in the Edo period, is based on various aspects of life and culture in Edo and Kamigata (Osaka) area. Many of these stories are related to food and fish. Here is a rakugo story in which the excuse for cheating one's partner became the "wrong fish" in both Edo and Kamigata. 

In the Edo rakugo Gonsuke Zakana (Gonsuke Fish), Gonsuke, a young apprentice in an Edo merchant family, is bribed for a penny by the wife of a merchant family, who suspects her husband is having an affair, and asked him to follow the husband as he goes out. However, Gonsuke was bribed by the husband for two pennies and told "to buy souvenir fish at a fish shop and report to her that the husband was playing net fishing (cast net) in the Sumida River." However, what Gonsuke bought were things that could not possibly be caught in the Sumida River. The wife and the banto (a shop manager) said, "he bought herring, pollack, shark, dried sardines, and fish cake. Most of all, a shark! The punch line is "sharks, ha ha, man-eaters (insolent in Japanese)." 

In the Kamigata rakugo story Wazawai wa Shimo (The Disaster is at the Bottom), the husband of a merchant family in Senba (part of Osaka) lies to his wife that he is going to cast a net, but he goes out to the woman's house. Sadakichi, the apprentice who served him, buys dried sardines, dried young sardines, and fish cakes for his boss' excuse. 

In both Edo and Kamigata, the children had no knowledge of fish, so they bought fish that could not be caught in the river and processed fish products. In both cases, dried sardine and fish cakes appeared, which suggests that these items were deeply rooted in the daily lives of the common people.

Kanji characters originated in China, but some (national characters) were created in Japan. Having fish radical, “鰯（sardine）” “鯒（flathead）” “鮗（dotted gizzard shad）” “鯱（killer whale）” “鱈（cod）” “鯲（loach）” “鰰（Japanese sandfish）” etc. Kanji with fish radical represents the fish itself and has no phonetic reading are generally Japan's own characters, but there are some characters that were also found in Chin, such as “鮎（sweet fish）” and “鰍（sculpin）”. However, in China, 鮎(sweet fish) means catfish and 鰍(sculpin) means loach. 

The number of kanji with the fish radical contained in the Great Kanji Dictionary (edited by Taishukan Publishing) is close to 700. There are many characters that have different meanings between Japan and China, such as “鰹(bonito)” for eel and “鮭(salmon)” for blowfish.