日本では中世より、食事の最後にご飯に香の物を添えて湯をそそぐ、「湯づけ」が食べられていました。江戸時代に煎茶が改良されることで、お湯の代わりに煎茶を注ぐ、「茶づけ」が工夫されます。そして香り高い海苔をふりかける、わさびを添えるなどの工夫が重ねられます。現代の料亭では出汁をそそぐようになっていますが、これは更なる変化といえます。

Ochazuke is a popular Japanese snack made by pouring green tea over cooked rice. It has an image as a midnight snack, or a quick meal on getting back from a night out.

The origins of ochazuke go back to the medieval period. At that time, at the end of the meal people would pour hot water over their rice and eat it with pickles.

However, as steeped tea brewed in a pot (sencha) improved in the eighteenth century, people started to use that instead of hot water, making ochazuke. This developed further as good seaweed or wasabi were added to the mix. These days, high-end Japanese restaurants pour hot broth over the rice, which can be said to be a further development of ochazuke.