What vegetable fills kappamaki, the classic cucumber sushi roll?

Kappamaki, the classic cucumber sushi roll, is filled with cucumber. It is a thin norimaki: sushi rice and a cucumber core are wrapped in a sheet of nori seaweed.

The roll’s name refers to the kappa, a water-dwelling creature in Japanese folklore that is traditionally said to favor cucumbers. The connection is reinforced by the cucumber’s watery freshness and by visual and wordplay associations in Japanese culture. Kappamaki was originally simply called a cucumber roll, and the timing of the name’s adoption is uncertain.

Thin rolls became especially associated with Edo, present-day Tokyo, although sushi rolls themselves are generally thought to have developed in the mid-Edo period in the Kamigata region around Osaka. The cucumber version is considered relatively modern; competing origin stories place its creation in Osaka or Tokyo in the early-to-mid 20th century.

Kappamaki is often served as a refreshing, inexpensive accompaniment to richer sushi. It is not the same as a vegetable-heavy futomaki, and the term does not mean that every roll containing cucumber is kappamaki. Its defining filling is cucumber, usually cut into a crisp central baton.