In Japanese cuisine, ikizukuri or ikezukuri (生き作り/活け造り, “prepared alive”) is the preparation of sashimi from a live sea animal, such as fish, shrimp, and lobster .[1]
Ikizukuri usually involves the customer selecting the animal they wish to eat from a saltwater tank. The chef, who is often a sashimi chef, takes the animal out of the tank, and carefully fillets it, without killing the animal. The sea animal is served on a plate, its sliced flesh served on top of it for decoration, with its heart still beating.[2] Other variants of ikizukuri involve temporarily returning a filleted fish to an aquarium, where it swims around until it is prepared as the second course soup.
Ikizukuri of fish consists of thin, sheet-like slices or finger-sized pieces of sashimi, sometimes garnished with lemon wedges, a decoration of ginger, or nori (seaweed).
The preparation of ikizukuri is controversial, and is banned in several countries, including Australia and Germany.[3]