Although its history is short, shabu-shabu is a traditional Japanese nabe nabe dish enjoyed throughout the year.
There is a theory that shabu-shabu actually came from China, and that it is a hot pot dish from Beijing called shuàn yáng ròu. It is a dish eaten by dipping stewed mutton into a thick sauce. Japanese immigrants who returned from China after World War II introduced this dish to Japan. It then transformed to become a dish aimed at Japanese people, with the meat used changing from mutton to beef, and the sauce changing to soy sauce based. This nabe dish brought from China was invented by Chuichi Miyake in 1952, who was working at the head restaurant of Suehiro in Eiraku-cho, Osaka. At the time, Chuichi Miyake saw a Suehiro employee wash a wet towel using a basin, and thought that it was similar to the movement of immersing meat in hot water in a nabe pot. Therefore, he named the dish after the onomatopoeia of water splashing, “shabu-shabu”. Additionally, one of the reasons why this dish was invented was to become a countermeasure against the summer period when yakiniku (grilled chicken) doesn’t sell as well. Although shabu-shabu is presently eaten throughout the year, it was initially a summer dish.