Irabu-jiru (sea snake soup)

The animal is the black-banded sea krait (Laticauda semifasciata), which Okinawans call irabu. It is highly venomous but gentle, with a small mouth, and it comes ashore to breed on islands such as Kudaka, where breeding is recorded from August to December and the islanders have their own names for it. Catchers take the kraits by hand, and the snakes are smoked and dried before they are sold. Sea snakes of other species are also sold under the irabu name.

The soup was a high-status court dish that ordinary people rarely ate. The dried krait is rehydrated and simmered at length with pork, kombu, island tofu and wild greens, and Irabu Ryori Kana in Kitanakagusuku says its signature soup takes about three days. Traditionally it is valued as a restorative after childbirth or illness, and folk belief credits it with easing neuralgia and rheumatism. Japanese Wikipedia records that Crown Prince Hirohito tasted it when the cruiser Katori called at Okinawa on his way to Europe, and that he found it very good.

Treat it as a dish to approach with care. The krait population is declining because of coastal development, red-soil runoff, coral bleaching, overharvesting and bycatch, and Okinawa bans collecting individuals 60 cm or shorter. Eat it, if you choose to, where a cook prepares it properly and in small portions. Souvenir shops also sell irabu-zake, awamori with a whole snake steeped in it.