Eye-catching regional sushi gets awesome-looking bento illustrations of video gaming’s martial arts masters.

Sushi will always grab the attention of Japanese food fans, but kakinoha sushi is especially eye-catching. A regional style of sushi particularly popular in Nara Prefecture, kakinoha sushi is a type of pressed sushi in which the pieces are wrapped in persimmon leaves (kakinoha in Japanese). Connoisseurs say that the tannins and aroma of the leaves transfers to the fish and heavily vinegared rice wrapped inside, giving them an extra touch of flavorful complexity.

You’re not supposed to eat the leaf, so it also serves as an elegantly rustic container for the sushi inside. But now Izasa Nakatanihonpo, a maker of kakinoha sushi in the Nara town of Yoshino, is adding another level of cool aesthetics to the dish with the release of Street Fighter kakinoha sushi bento boxed lunches.

Each Street Fighter Kakinoha Sushi set comes with seven pieces of sushi inside, two each of saba (mackerel), sake (salmon), and tai (sea bream), and one of aji (horse mackerel).

A total of four different designs are in the lineup, starting with, naturally, Ryu, the overall protagonist of video game developer Capcom’s landmark fighting series.

Since Nara is famous for its herds of wild deer that roam freely through Nara Park, the street fighters are accompanied by one or more of the animals on their bento box lid. Each piece of artwork also has a seasonal motif, with Ryu representing spring as he sits under a cherry blossom tree evocative of his Street Fighter 6 stage.

Summer belongs to E. Honda, taking in the sights of a fireworks festival from a pleasure boat and proving he likes foods other than chanko nabe hot pot.

For autumn, Chun-Li sits under an elegant traditional paper umbrella as the leaves change colors and fall…

…and for winter, down-on-his-luck Ken gets to treat himself to a break at a heated and blanketed kotatsu table, with a basket of mikan oranges for dessert and some street fighter snowmen outside.

In addition to filling them up with other foods to reuse for boxed lunches, the containers also work nicely as general-purpose storage containers once you’ve eaten the included batch of sushi, measuring 15 by 13.5 centimeters (5.9 by 5.3 centimeters).

And as an added bonus, each Street Fighter Kakinoha Sushi bento also comes with a post card of its respective artwork, which you can either send to a fellow fan or keep for yourself and use like a mini poster.

The Street Fighter Kakinoha Sushi bento are on sale now for 1,680 yen (US$12) and can be purchased here through the Izasa Nakatanihonpo online shop.

Source: PR Times
Featured image: Izasa Nakatanihonpo
Top image: Izasa Nakatanihonpo
Insert images: PR Times, Izasa Nakatanihonpo (1, 2)
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