蝦蛄 · シャコ · shako

Shako

Shako is mantis shrimp — always boiled, with soft faintly sweet flesh and a flavor all its own. A vanishing Tokyo Bay classic, and not actually a shrimp.

Also known as

mantis shrimp, squilla

Species

Oratosquilla oratoria (Japanese mantis shrimp)

Category

Shrimp & crab (ebi / kani)

Texture

soft, tender — sweet, briny, distinctive

Peak season

May, Jun

Sustainability

varies — Tokyo Bay stocks are widely reported to have declined; much shako is now caught elsewhere.

Mercury

Not in the FDA consumer table

Pregnancy

Generally safe

Price tier

$$

Not a shrimp at all

Shako looks like a flattened prawn, but it isn’t one: it’s a stomatopod, a mantis shrimp, from a different order entirely than true (decapod) shrimp like ebi. It’s always boiled, never served raw, and often glazed with a brush of sweet tsume. The cooked tail meat is soft, mild and gently sweet, with a savor that’s instantly recognizable and weirdly hard to describe.

An edomae original

Shako is one of the oldest Tokyo-style neta, historically pulled straight from Tokyo Bay. The connoisseur’s prize is katsubushi — egg-bearing spring females carrying a ribbon of orange roe (ko) inside. Spring into early summer is the season.

A neta in decline

Tokyo Bay’s shako once defined the piece, but stocks there have fallen sharply with habitat loss and water quality, and most of today’s supply comes from other waters. A reminder that even a humble neta can have a fragile backstory.

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