The difference between Onigiri, Omusubi, and Nigirimeshi
In Japan, when a mother makes a bento for the lunch that her kid has at school, she sometimes makes rice balls as a staple food, together with side dishes.
Besides, if you go shopping at convenience stores in Japan, you will see a variety of the rice ball packaged in plastic wrap lined up on the shelf.As you may know, these Japanese rice balls are generally known as Onigiri (おにぎり).
Actually, in addition to Onigiri, the rice ball has another 2 given names, Omusubi (おむすび) and Nigirimeshi (にぎりめし), but what is the difference between Onigiri, Omusubi, and Nigirimeshi?
The difference between Onigiri, Omusubi, and Nigirimeshi
When we refers to the rice ball in daily life, we often use Onigiri or Omusubi.Whether we say “Onigiri” or “Omusubi” depends on the person.However, generally speaking, Onigiri is the word commonly used in the eastern part of Japan, whereas Omusubi tends to be used in the western part of Japan.
Speaking of the shape, generally, no matter what shape is okay concerning Onigiri.Actually, it is said that the word, Onigiri is derived from the word, Nigirimeshi, so both of the words usually refer to the rice ball with a free shape that is covered with a dried sheet of laver seaweed, or Nori (海苔) (Amazon.com).
On the other hand, in many cases, Omusubi refers to the rice ball with a triangle shape that is covered partly with a Nori sheet.
However, according to Onigiri Association of Japan and Kojien (広辞苑), one of the most authoritative dictionaries of Japanese, each of the 3 words has the same meaning, just “rice balls”.
(Reference page of this article : Wikipedia “おにぎり”)
