Tempura is fish, seafood, or vegetables in a light batter of flour, egg, and cold water, deep-fried to a crispy but not heavy crust. It is eaten with a special tentsuyu sauce or with salt, often added to rice as tendon or to noodles. The batter is mixed minimally so that the dough stays airy.

How does tempura differ from karaage and furai?

Tempura has a thin egg-and-flour batter without breading. Karaage is meat or fish dusted with flour or starch without a thick batter, often marinated beforehand. Furai is a Western-style dish like tonkatsu, where the ingredient is breaded with flour, egg, and panko crumbs. All three are different methods of deep-frying with different crust textures.

Where did the word "tempura" come from?

The word is most likely Portuguese: Japan's Ministry of Agriculture names theories from tempero, "seasoning," and temporas, Catholic fasting days when people ate fish and vegetables in batter instead of meat. The word first appears in a Japanese cookbook of 1669 — about a hundred years after the first Portuguese arrived in Japan.

Is it true that Tokugawa Ieyasu died from eating tempura?

This is a legend, not an established fact. According to the chronicle "Tokugawa Jikki," the shogun did eat fried sea bream (tai) and complained of stomach pain that same evening, but he died only three months later. Based on the symptoms, historians lean toward the cause being not food but stomach cancer.

Why is it spelled "tempura," with an m, and not "tenpura"?

天ぷら is pronounced ten-pu-ra, but before p, b, and m the Japanese ん shifts to an m sound — that's why the standard Hepburn spelling is "tempura," not "tenpura." The same shift shows up in other familiar loanwords: senpai/sempai, konbu/kombu. So "tempura" isn't a rival spelling competing with anything — it's simply how the word is normally written in English.

How is "tempura" written in kanji?

天婦羅 or the older 天麩羅 — both are ateji, characters chosen for their sound, not their meaning. In everyday texts the word is almost always written in hiragana てんぷら: a single standard kanji spelling never became established.

Tempura: Batter, a Portuguese Word, and the Myth of Tokugawa Ieyasu's Death

Tempura (天ぷら) is fish, seafood, or vegetables in a light batter of flour, egg, and ice-cold water, deep-fried. The word is most likely Portuguese: theories trace it to tempero, "seasoning," and to temporas, the fasting days when people ate fish instead of meat. The characters 天婦羅 are ateji, chosen for their sound. Legend says tempura made from sea bream (tai) killed shogun Tokugawa Ieyasu, but he died only three months later.

Tempura has a reputation as a typically Japanese dish, though it appeared thanks to contact with traders and missionaries from Portugal. Let's look at how tempura differs from karaage and furai, where the word and the characters 天婦羅 came from, and what is actually known about the death of shogun Tokugawa Ieyasu — the most persistent myth connected with this dish.

A Light Batter of Flour, Egg, and Ice-Cold Water

Tempura is fish, seafood, or vegetables in a light batter of flour, egg, and very cold water, deep-fried at high temperature. The batter is mixed with just a few strokes, barely touching it — the less gluten develops, the airier the crust becomes.

Tempura Is Not Karaage or Furai

Karaage is meat or fish lightly dusted with flour or starch without a thick batter, usually marinated beforehand in soy sauce. Furai is a Western-style dish like tonkatsu: the ingredient is breaded with flour, egg, and panko crumbs. Tempura's batter is thin, egg-and-flour based, without breading — hence the light, not dense, crust.

The Portuguese Word and Japanese Ateji

The word "tempura" first appears in a 1669 cookbook. It is believed to have come from Portuguese. Japan's Ministry of Agriculture and Fisheries names two theories: from tempero, "seasoning, that which flavors," and from temporas, Catholic fasting days when Europeans ate fish and vegetables in batter instead of meat. Both theories do not exclude each other and both link the dish to the Portuguese who traded in Nagasaki in the 16th century.

天婦羅 — Characters for Sound, Not Meaning

The characters 天婦羅 and the older variant 天麩羅 are ateji: they were chosen for the sound "tempura," not for the meaning of the characters. According to one theory, the characters were assembled from the impression of the dish itself: "heaven" — the top of the boiling oil, "fluttering" flour, and a light, silk-like crust. Because of this varied history of spelling, in everyday use the word is almost always written in kana, not kanji.

Why Tempura Was Sold Right on the Street

In Edo, tempura was fried in sesame oil and sold from yatai stalls: the finished pieces were skewered on sticks and eaten standing, dipped in sauce. As oil production in Japan grew, tempura became cheaper and became food for ordinary townspeople, not just the nobility. Soba, sushi, and tempura from stalls were together considered the three main street flavors of Edo.

Three Months Between Dinner and the Death of Tokugawa Ieyasu

Legend says that shogun Tokugawa Ieyasu was killed by tempura made from tai, sea bream. The chronicle "Tokugawa Jikki" tells: in the first month of 1616, on a falconry hunt in Tanaka, Ieyasu heard from an attendant about a dish fashionable in the capital — tai fried in kaya oil, with grated nira on top. The same was prepared for him, and that same evening he complained of stomach pain.

What Actually Happened

Ieyasu died not that evening, but three months later, in the fourth month of the same year according to the lunar calendar. Based on the symptoms — temporary improvement, loss of appetite, heaviness in the chest, and a lump in the abdomen — historians lean toward the cause being not food poisoning but stomach cancer. The beautiful story of the fatal dinner has since lived separately from the medical explanation, because it is simpler to remember.

Tempura Today Is Everyday, Not Rare

Despite the legend about the shogun, tempura in Japan is eaten every day: it is sold ready-made in supermarkets, is on the menu of noodle shops, and goes into bento. There are also specialized establishments where a chef fries tempura in front of the guest, portion by portion — but this is more a special style of serving than a sign that the dish itself is rare.

揚: Why "to Raise" Came to Mean "to Deep-Fry"

揚 — значение: to raise, to lift up, to deep-fry — онъёми: ヨウ — кунъёми: あ.げる、-あ.げ、あ.がる — 12 штрих(ов). 揚 — "to raise, to deep-fry": 揚げる and 揚げ物 are exactly what is done with tempura.

The on'yomi of the character 揚 is ヨウ (yō), the kun'yomi is あ.げる (ageru), literally "to raise." The connection with frying is not accidental: in deep-frying, the ingredient floats to the surface of the oil when it is ready. The general word for any deep-frying is 揚げ物 (agemono), and 唐揚げ (karaage) is the case when meat is fried almost without batter, simply in flour or starch.

In Everyday Use, 天ぷら Is Almost Always Hidden Behind Kana

The word "tempura" has a long history of alternative spellings — 天麩羅, 天婦羅, and other ateji, none of which became generally accepted. Therefore today, on menus, on packaging, and in conversation, the word is almost always written in hiragana てんぷら, and the kanji remain more of a literary variant.

Japanese	Reading	Translation
天ぷら	tenpura · tenpura	Tempura
揚げる	ageru · ageru	To deep-fry
揚げ物	agemono · agemono	Deep-fried food, general word
唐揚げ	karaage · karaage	Meat fried almost without batter
天丼	tendon · tendon	Rice with tempura on top
天つゆ	tentsuyu · tentsuyu	Sauce for dipping tempura

Write 揚 along the guides — the character for "deep-frying" that stands behind the word tempura.

FAQ

What is tempura?: Tempura is fish, seafood, or vegetables in a light batter of flour, egg, and cold water, deep-fried to a crispy but not heavy crust. It is eaten with a special tentsuyu sauce or with salt, often added to rice as tendon or to noodles. The batter is mixed minimally so that the dough stays airy.
How does tempura differ from karaage and furai?: Tempura has a thin egg-and-flour batter without breading. Karaage is meat or fish dusted with flour or starch without a thick batter, often marinated beforehand. Furai is a Western-style dish like tonkatsu, where the ingredient is breaded with flour, egg, and panko crumbs. All three are different methods of deep-frying with different crust textures.
Where did the word "tempura" come from?: The word is most likely Portuguese: Japan's Ministry of Agriculture names theories from tempero, "seasoning," and temporas, Catholic fasting days when people ate fish and vegetables in batter instead of meat. The word first appears in a Japanese cookbook of 1669 — about a hundred years after the first Portuguese arrived in Japan.
Is it true that Tokugawa Ieyasu died from eating tempura?: This is a legend, not an established fact. According to the chronicle "Tokugawa Jikki," the shogun did eat fried sea bream (tai) and complained of stomach pain that same evening, but he died only three months later. Based on the symptoms, historians lean toward the cause being not food but stomach cancer.
Why is it spelled "tempura," with an m, and not "tenpura"?: 天ぷら is pronounced ten-pu-ra, but before p, b, and m the Japanese ん shifts to an m sound — that's why the standard Hepburn spelling is "tempura," not "tenpura." The same shift shows up in other familiar loanwords: senpai/sempai, konbu/kombu. So "tempura" isn't a rival spelling competing with anything — it's simply how the word is normally written in English.
How is "tempura" written in kanji?: 天婦羅 or the older 天麩羅 — both are ateji, characters chosen for their sound, not their meaning. In everyday texts the word is almost always written in hiragana てんぷら: a single standard kanji spelling never became established.

Sources

Updated: 2026-09-15