Kabayaki is a cooking method where the belly of a long, slender fish is split open, the bones are removed, and the fish is cut into sections, skewered, brushed with sauce, and grilled.
Although it mainly refers to grilled eel, this method is also used for fish like pacific saury and sardines.
Before the Edo period, whole eels were cut into chunks and grilled on skewers. Because their appearance resembled the seed heads of cattails (蒲, gama), the dish was called gama-yaki.
Over time, the pronunciation changed to kabayaki.
From the Edo period onward, the current style—splitting the eel, removing the bones, cutting it into pieces, skewering, and grilling with a sweet soy-based sauce (tare)—became common, while the name "kabayaki" remained unchanged.