is a type of nabemono

Nabemono

Nabemono or simply called nabe, is a term referring to all varieties of Japanese steamboat dishes, also known as one pot dishes....

 made with minke whale

Whale

Whale is the common name for various marine mammals of the order Cetacea. The term whale sometimes refers to all cetaceans, but more often it excludes dolphins and porpoises, which belong to suborder Odontoceti . This suborder also includes the sperm whale, killer whale, pilot whale, and beluga...

 meat and mizuna

Mizuna

Mizuna , also called Xiu Cai, Kyona, Japanese Mustard, Potherb Mustard, Japanese Greens, California Peppergrass, Spider Mustard, etc., is a Japanese name used primarily for cultivated varieties of Brassica rapa nipposinica but also for Brassica juncea var...

. It is mainly found in the Kansai

Kansai

The or the lies in the southern-central region of Japan's main island Honshū. The region includes the prefectures of Mie, Nara, Wakayama, Kyoto, Osaka, Hyōgo, and Shiga. Depending on who makes the distinction, Fukui, Tokushima and even Tottori Prefecture are also included...

 region, mostly in the Osaka

Osaka

is a city in the Kansai region of Japan's main island of Honshu, a designated city under the Local Autonomy Law, the capital city of Osaka Prefecture and also the biggest part of Keihanshin area, which is represented by three major cities of Japan, Kyoto, Osaka and Kobe...

 metropolitan area. The name "harihari" is onomatopoeic and refers to the sound of chewing mizuna.

The dish is most often made with fat meat, called .

When whaling was popular in Japan, whale meat

Whale meat

Whale meat is the flesh of whales used for consumption by humans or other animals. It is prepared in various ways, and is historically part of the diet and cuisine of various communities that live near an ocean, including those of Japan, Norway, Iceland, and the Arctic...

 was cheap and easy to get, and the dish was eaten by the masses. Once commercial whaling ended, whale meat became more difficult to obtain, so pork or duck were frequently substituted in for whale.

Variations

There are variations of hari-hari nabe based on region and ingredient availability. If aburaage is used in place of whale meat, it is called . Some restaurants use horse meat

Horse meat

Horse meat is the culinary name for meat cut from a horse. It is a major meat in only a few countries, notably in Central Asia, but it forms a significant part of the culinary traditions of many others, from Europe to South America to Asia. The top eight countries consume about 4.7 million horses...

in place of whale. Other variations include the addition of mushrooms or tofu.