The chef has to be a ‘virtuoso of the knife’, since the edible meat has to be separated, with the greatest precision,
from the poisonous liver and entrails. The Kabuki actor Mitsugora Bando VIII, declared a Living National Treasure by the Japanese government until his death in 1975, had a penchant for forbidden chiri - fugu fillets cooked in a kettle with toxic fugu livers, skins and intestines. For years he’d survived bowl after bowl served to him clandestinely by sympathetic chefs - until one night in a Kyoto restaurant, his fourth helping abruptly released his spirit from his body.