Onigiri..Samgak Kimbap..? Who invented the rice ball?

Question

Now that I have lived in Japan and Korea, I am wondering who invented the rice triangle/ball. Bonbu got me wondering with his onigiri link. It doesn't really claim it as Japanese. The Koreans claim it as theirs, originally. It is called Samgak Kimbap in Korea. What is it in China? I have seen them in Hawaii.. that must be from the Japanese tourism. What do we call itin Hawaii I wonder? Onigiri or rice ball?

Answer 1

It's a little funny. Is it an invention? Why Korean is always stick to the "first", "No.1" and "invention"?
Rice ball is just a form of portable fast food.

But Onigiri's roots can be traceable back to the Heian period.
http://nautarch.tamu.edu/anth/sea/whitelaw.htm
http://reference.info.com/reference?qkw=onigiri&source_id=2222&source_key=Onigiri
http://www.jaist.ac.jp/misc/cosmos/nov95/event.html

Please let Koreans show the roots of Kimbap. "Hearsay" statement is NOT enough. If they insist that is an great "invention", they have to and must trace the roots.

In China, cold rice haven't been preferred since long time ago. Rice ball is as well. That is why they steam rice as in Zongzi.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zongzi
Maybe you can say this is similar form. But at the era of BC (before century), China and Japan didn't have diplomatic relationship yet. So Onigiri should be separated from Zongzi.

And today, Onigiri in Japan varies.
http://images.google.com/images?svnum=10&um=1&hl=en&q=onigiri

Some western traveller seem to assume Kimbap is like a Korean sushi.
Probably the taste would be very different.

Answer 2

Samgak Kimbap

Answer 3

Japanese learned it from Korea although some variation of it probably came from China somewhere... Asia came from China...

Answer 4

I an honoured something I wrote aroused your interest. The name for a type of rice ball in chinese is cǎobāofàn 草包飯, but is a little different to the Japanese conception of onigiri.
In Hawaii it varies widely it would seem
一方、ハワイや沖縄では、スパム（ランチョンミート）を具としたおにぎりが「スパムむすび」「ポーク玉子おにぎり（おにポー）」などという名で販売されている。オーストラリアなどでも、おにぎりがファーストフードのメニューとして扱われているというケースもある。
Spam musubi (sounds lovely!), onipo (a pork egg onigiri itwould seem...
Also mentions that it is a fast food option in Australia, it is a wide world!