Early Japanese Food History

Patterns and Change

Japan

Jōmon (13,000 bce to 900 bce)

• Seasonal Migrations–Winter: Hunting deer, boar, monkey,

rabbit– Spring: Coastal Shellfish– Summer: Fishing, Foraging– Autumn: Mountain Foraging, nuts,

berries

• Later Jōmon: Horticulture– Swidden (Slash & Burn)–Melons, Burdock, Beans, Barley, Millet– Pottery

Jomon Pottery

Yayoi (900 bce-250 ce)• Early Agriculture– Japonica Rice, cast seeds, dependent on

rain– 5 Grains: Rice, Barley, Millet, Wheat,

Buckwheat. Also Soybeans.– Swidden, Fishing, Hunting continue– Pigs Domesticated. Octopus traps.

• Later: – Rice paddy irrigation and seedling

transplant– imported iron tools

• Problems: Spring Hungers and Warfare

Yayoi Pottery and Tools

Tomb Culture (3rd - 6th century)

• Yayoi patterns continue• Stoneware• Sake fermentation• Chopsticks• Population Growth• Political Consolidation

Tomb-era Pottery and Kamado

Nagoya: Atsuta ShrineSake Barrels & Shinto Priest

Ritsuryo Era Tribute

Classical Japan: 7th c. to 12th c.• Population Stagnates, even declines

– Epidemic Disease, Cooling, Deforestation and Overproduction

• Taxes based on Rice– Irrigation sporadic, difficult to maintain– Iron in short supply

• Typical Diet: "brown rice, wheat, barley, salt, seaweed, bean paste [miso], vinegar, melons ... lots of rice wine. ... mushrooms, chestnuts, and local fish and game." (Farris 2009, 48)

Classical Japan, cont.• Agriculture: –more oxen, plant-based fertilizers, double-

cropping dry fields– oils (hemp, sesame, bean)

• Peasant classes lived on edge of starvation, continued swidden, hunting, foraging

• Elites lived on tax and tribute from estates– "Their diet was surprisingly poor, mostly

polished rice, various vegetables, fish and shellfish, and lots of rice wine. ... susceptible to all sorts of chronic diseases." (Farris 2009, 73)

18c Watanabe ShikoFarmer's Ox

Medieval Japan (13th to 16th c.)

• Population growing: epidemics, famines slow• Agriculture:– Iron Tools available again, rising use of oxen– manure as fertilizer, water wheel irrigation– "Island Dry Fields", double-cropping of rice begins– Champa Rice

• "more side dishes such as salted fish and noodles" (Farris 2009, 128)

17c Screen: Water Wheel

Medieval Screen: Rice Planting

New Foods

• Zen Buddhist Monk Eisai brings Tea from China. Buddhists also introduce sweet bean paste, steamed buns, and Tofu

• Foreign Influences: Teppan yaki, Tempura, Castela cake, pepper.

• Soy sauce, ginger, wasabi become widespread

• Miso, soy and rice form complete protein

Early Modern Japan (17th to 19th c.)

• Agricultural Boom: Peace Dividend–Widespread double-cropping, seed

selection– Fertilization: "Night Soil", seedcake, fish– Columbian Exchange: Sweet Potatoes,

green beans, maize, red peppers, pumpkins, watermelon, spinach, chili peppers, peanuts

– Spread of beriberi as polished rice became more common

– Hunting declined, except wildfowl; domesticated pig, chicken popular

• Lunch

Early Modern Agriculture

Everyday Food"What we think of as the traditional Japanese diet of steamed rice accompanied by soup, one or more side dishes, and pickles, developed slowly... Even samurai families often had a daily diet of coarse grains or rice mixed with other grains with a side dish of fish or something extra for the master, but only soup, pickles and possibly boiled vegetables for the rest of the family and the servants." (Hanley 1997, 86)

Special Occasions"salted salmon, tuna, bean curd, dried bonito, squid, herring roe, and dried herring - all purchased at a nearby town - eggs, dried nameko (an edible fungus), sea bream, fried bean curd, aya (sweetfish), horseradish, and the list goes on. ... "Sugar was a luxury item [but] even people in the northern, poorer sections of the country could buy it and did." (Hanley 1997, 87)

Early Modern Food• "in Japan, one-pot meals had one or

more grains - usually including rice - as their base, and other foods, particularly vegetables, were added appropriately during the cooking process." (Hanley 1997, 79)

• Shinano: 20 different rice strains, buckwheat, beans, daikon radish, vegetables, grasshoppers, horse chestnuts, wild greens

• Urban Restaurants: sushi, soba, ramen, rice cake/bean soup, eel, tea houses

17c Kusumi Morikage: Rice Cultivation Four Seasons, left

panels

17c Kusumi Morikage: Rice Cultivation Four Seasons, center

panels

17c Kusumi Morikage: Rice Cultivation Four Seasons, right

panels

Yamaguchi: Flooded Rice Field w/ Tractor

Yamaguchi: Dry Rice Field w/ Hoe

Yamaguchi: Replanted Rice Field w/

Blower

Rice Harvest

Nagoya: Rice Harvest Drying

Bento Lunch on Lacquer

Kanazawa: Rice Bales as Restaurant

Sign

Osaka Rice Docks

Nagoya: Soba Shop

Sources• Susan Hanley, Everyday Things in

Premodern Japan: The Hidden Legacy of Material Culture, UCP, 1997

• William Wayne Farris, Japan to 1600: A Social And Economic History, U Hawaii Press, 2009

• Yamakawa, Nihonshi Sogo Zuroku [Comprehensive Visual History of Japan]

• Edo: Art in Japan, 1615-1868 by the National Gallery of Art, Washington, DC

• Other Pictures by Jonathan Dresner– http://www.flickr.com/photos/jondresner/