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, also known as , is a snack of Japanese rice formed into triangle or oval shapes and wrapped in . Traditionally, the onigiri is filled with pickled ume fruit (umeboshi), salted salmon, katsuobushi, or any other salty or sour ingredient. In practice, pickled filling is used for preservation of the rice. Since the onigiri is one of the most famed and popular snacks in Japan, most convenience stores in Japan stock onigiri in many popular fillings and tastes. Specialized shops, called Onigiri-ya, offer handmade rice balls for take out.

History Writings dating back as far as the 17th century tell us that many samurai stored rice balls wrapped in bamboo leaves as a quick lunchtime meal at war, but the origins of onigiri are much earlier. Before the use of chopsticks became widespread in the Nara period, rice was often rolled into a small ball so that it could be easily picked up. In the Heian period, rice was also made into small rectangular shapes called , so that they could be piled onto a plate and easily eaten.

From the Kamakura period to the early Edo period, onigiri was used as a quick meal. This made sense as cooks simply had to think about making enough onigiri and did not have to concern themselves with serving. These onigiri were simply a ball of rice flavored with salt. Nori did not become widely available until the Genroku during the mid-Edo period, when the farming of nori and fashioning it into sheets became widespread.

It was believed that onigiri could not be produced with a machine as the hand rolling technique was considered too difficult to replicate. In the 1980s, a machine that made triangle onigiri was built. This was initially met with skepticism because rather than having the filling traditionally rolled inside, the flavoring was simply put into a hole in onigiri and this shortcut was hidden by the nori. Since the onigiri made by this machine came with nori already applied to the rice ball, over time the nori became unpleasantly moist and sticky, clinging to the rice. A packaging improvement allowed the nori to be stored separately from the rice. Before eating, the diner could open the packet of nori and wrap the onigiri. The machines' limitation that an ingredient was filled into a hole instead of rolled together with the rice actually made new flavors of onigiri easier to produce as this cooking process did not require changes from ingredient to ingredient.

O-musubi is not a form of sushi, despite common misconception. While o-musubi is made with plain rice (perhaps lightly salted), sushi is made of rice with vinegar added. O-musubi is merely a method of making rice portable and easy to eat, while sushi originated as a way of preserving freshwater fish.

In popular culture Onigiri have become a common sight in Japanese anime and manga. For example, Tohru Honda from Fruits Basket is depicted sometimes as an onigiri in the manga. As a child, her classmates played a cruel trick on her by assigning her the role of an onigiri when they played Fruit Basket Turnover. Since an onigiri is not a fruit, she was never called. Another example is , in One Piece, one of Roronoa Zoro's earliest attacks is called Onigiri. This is meant to be a pun, since Onigiri can either refer to "Rice Ball" or "Demon Cutter."

In the animated series Pokémon (anime), onigiri is a common snack eaten by the protagonists. In earlier episodes of the Language localisation English language dubbed version, they're referred to as cake, éclairs, popcorn balls, or doughnuts. Later in the series, they are Editing of anime in American distribution and replaced with sandwiches, which has been deemed an act of racism by some fans. In the Dragon Ball anime trilogy, it is used as a portable meal, mid-battle snack, main meals, and Goku's favorite pastime food.

The female character Honey Kisaragi of Cutey Honey gets her energy from eating onigiri and drinking green tea, a popular and traditional Japanese drink

The Japanese cute character company San-X created a character line called Omusubiya-san. As would be expected, the characters were various types of onigiri.

In the Mystical Ninja series of video games, Goemon and friends eat rice balls to regain their health.

On her 18th single, Flavor of Life, Japanese singer Utada Hikaru had an onigiri symbol on her shoulder for the CD cover.

Common fillings

Fish

Katsuobushi (also called okaka)
Chum salmon
Tuna

Seafood

Mentaiko

Pickling

Umeboshi
Tsukudani
Seaweed
Nozawana

Furikake
Miso

Fillings outside Japan

Spam (food) is used in Hawaii