1132
It seems there are three words for the same Japanese food item, a kind of
"sushi in a long roll":

  * "巻寿司" (makizushi)
  * "海苔巻き" (norimaki)
  * "巻物" (makimono)

Are they all identical / synonyms? Do they refer to subtly different things?
Are they used in different regions? Are they used by different generations of
Japanese?

[Sidenote: At the risk of side-tracking another food question, there only
seems to be one word for these in Korean: "김밥" (gimbap).]
CC BY-SA 3.0
2011-06-14T12:48:52.200
1127
2011-06-14T19:23:07.180
125
question
word-choice vocabulary synonyms food
What's the difference between "巻寿司" (makizushi), "海苔巻き" (norimaki), and "巻物" (makimono)?
**Norimaki & Makizushi** both refer to the rolled up sushi. Makizushi is used
more commonly used than Norimaki. INterestingly Google has 2.28M occurrences
of _Norimaki_ but 4.85M of _Makizushi_.

**Makimono** (lit: rolled up thing) covers rolled sushi but also describes
calligraphic scrolls.

From my experience, older people to use the term Makimono, whereas makizushi
is very heard. I've never had a conversation where the term "norimaki" came
up, and I used to work in a Japanese restaurant with people form Nagoya, so
maybe that one is regional.

Searching the usual Japanese resources did not yield any definitive answers.

PS: Inuit have over one hundred words for snow (ref:
<http://www.mendosa.com/snow.html>). So if Korea only has one word, I guess
that shows how important a part of Japanese culinary culture sushi is :D Of
course Korea rules when it comes to Bulgogi/Yakiniku.

EDIT: Fixed for anthropological accuracy, and to garner an up vote from
@Hippietrail
CC BY-SA 3.0
2011-06-14T13:17:51.340
1128
2011-06-14T13:44:36.597
2011-06-14T13:44:36.597
168
168
1127
answer
The literal meanings of these words are:

  * 巻寿司 (まきずし): sushi roll
  * 海苔巻き (のりまき): something rolled with [nori](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nori), a specific kind of seaweed
  * 巻物 (まきもの): something rolled

[海苔巻き](http://ja.wikipedia.org/wiki/%E6%B5%B7%E8%8B%94%E5%B7%BB%E3%81%8D)
usually refers to sushi roll with nori, but depending on the context, it can
refer to other kinds of food, including [海苔巻き卵
(のりまきたまご)](http://cookpad.com/recipe/544345) and [海苔巻き煎餅
(のりまきせんべい)](http://www.minatoya.biz/shohin/okaki_senbei/nori/norimaki.html).

Unlike 海苔巻き, I do not think that 巻物 is understood as sushi roll unless it is
clear from the context that one is talking about sushi. As crunchyt wrote, 巻物
can also mean a scroll.

When used to describe kinds of sushi, these three words are almost synonymous,
but sushi rolled with something other than nori ([usually
egg](http://www.onigiriya.co.jp/products/norimaki.htm)) can be called 巻寿司 or
巻物 but not 海苔巻き.
CC BY-SA 3.0
2011-06-14T14:05:12.753
1132
2011-06-14T19:23:07.180
2011-06-14T19:23:07.180
15
15
1127
answer