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Appetite, 1998, 30, 117128

A Note on the Making of Culinary Traditionan Example ofModern Japan

KATARZYNA CWIERTKA

Centre for Japanese and Korean Studies, Leiden University,The Netherlands

This article deals with the transition of Japanese food culture in the late nineteenthand the first half of the twentieth century. It explains the three main stages ofthis transition, namely the adoption of Western haute cuisine by the Japaneseelite, the diffusion of Western ingredients, dishes and cookery techniques amongthe urban middle class, and the popularization of the new JapaneseWesternhybrid cuisine by the military. This new cuisine began to acquire the status ofculinary tradition from the 1950s onwards. Dietary changes in modern Japanwere to a large extent a consequence of deliberate policies of the government. Inthe early stage, Westernization of the elites diet was regarded as necessary inorder to achieve a status of a civilized nation. Later, deliberate dietary reformswere undertaken with the aim of improving physical conditions of the population.These deliberate actions were directly influenced by the political circumstances inwhich Japan found itself in the period discussed.

1998 Academic Press Limited

I

Tradition means, in the most elementary sense, anything that is transmitted or

handed down from the past to the present (Shils, 1981). In the particular sense of

culinary tradition, it means food considered by a population, or a social group, to

be part of their own specific combinations of foods consumed and ideas and values

on this food handed down from one generation to another (Den Hartog, 1986).

However, it does not mean that the concept of traditional food is unchanged. 1

Rather, tradition is a sequence of variations on received and transmitted themes,

created by incorporating new elements and removing old. Food may come to be

considered traditional regardless of its place of origin (ibid.)This article deals with the changes in the Japanese cuisine in the first half of the

twentieth century, based on the adoption of Western, and to a lesser degree Chinese,

culinary elements and concepts. This process illustrates the switch from one version

of culinary tradition to another.

The mid-ninteenth century Japanese society was by no means homogeneous. The

country was divided into more than 260 autonomous feudal regimes, and each had

Address correspondence to: K. Cwiertka, Centre for Japanese and Korean Studies, P.O. Box 9515,NL-2300 RA Leiden, The Netherlands.

1 For the study of changing culinary traditions see Mennell, 1985; Levenstein, 1988; and a detailedbibliography in Mennell, Murcott & van Otterloo, 1992.

01956663/98/020117+12 $25.00/0/ap970133 1998 Academic Press Limited


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118 K. CWIERTKA

a strong sense of regionalism. Moreover, the sharp class distinction policy maintained

by the central government led to the emergence of close communities with varied

lifestyles, world views and customs. In the context of eating habits, a variety of local

cuisines with great regional differences, and the urban food culture of the three big

cities: Edo, Kyoto and Osaka, were characteristic for nineteenth century Japan. The

differences between the elaborate cuisine of the elite, a simple daily diet of other city

dwellers, and a hand-to-mouth existence of the majority of the peasants were very

large. In fact, several culinary traditions in Japan up to the turn of the nineteenth

century should be considered, although the Japanese haute cuisine is usually used as

a representative standard for the culinary culture of pre-modern Japan. This cuisine,

greatly influenced by the Buddhist vegetarianism, was characterized by the use of

fresh vegetables and seafood in season, scarcity of fat and meat, and the emphasis

on the aesthetic values of dishes (see Menu 1).

Tray

(unlacquered Japanese cedar tray)

Dried sea slug, slivered and simmered in broth,

in a lacquered bowl with fine horizontal grooves

Soup, containing eggplant

Rice

Pickles, dried melon cucumber and prickly ash berries, passed by

host

Passed around dish

Carp, simmered in sake and served with mustardvinegar sauce

Grilled sweetfish

Cowpeas

Sillago, grilled

Sweets

Jellied arrowroot dumplings

Cloud-ear mushrooms

Chestnuts

M 1. A pre-modern Japanese haute cuisine menu (Cort, 1990)

From the 1950s a new, relatively uniform diet became prevalent in Japan. This

new type of cuisine was the mixture of various pre-modern culinary traditions, from

the haute cuisine to a simple peasant diet, and adoptions from abroadnew foodstuffs,

new cooking techniques, and new attitudes towards consumption. During the fol-

lowing decades, this new hybrid food culture diffused throughout the entire society,

came to be perceived as traditional by the majority of the Japanese, and was

propagated as such abroad. Menus of Japanese restaurants today are full of hybrid


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119CULINARY TRADITION IN JAPAN

dishes that emerged in the early twentieth century, and household literature hands

over the hybrid tradition to the next generations.2

The emergence of this new tradition in Japanese food culture was an historical

process taking place in the background of Western penetration of Japan in the

second half of the nineteenth century, through the industrialization, urbanization,

and finally militarization of the country. This note is an attempt to investigate the

mechanism of this process. I will comment on three stages of the Japanese culinary

transformation: the adoption of Western haute cuisine by the Japanese elite, the

domestication of Western dishes and foodstuffs by the urban middle-class, and the

diffusion of the hybrid cuisine during the Pacific War.

F, D C

In order to examine closely the transformation of the Japanese diet, the adoptions

of foreign elements must be followed in detail. For this purpose I distinguished three

categories within the wide-ranging concept of food: cuisines, dishes and foodstuffs.

In my view, these categories migrate and diffuse differently and, therefore, should

be treated separately.

I defined a cuisine as a complex system of foodstuffs, cookery techniques, dishes

and the names of the dishes, tableware and table manners. When imported, a cuisine

functions independently of the local food culture. It contains a strong cultural

message, and symbolizes the culture where it originated. For example, foreign

restaurants not only serve foreign food, but also have an exotic name, interior, and

play the music from the claimed area of origin. Customers of these restaurants enjoy

the food in a certain atmosphere which is created by elements unrelated to matters

of the palate. Another example is the French cuisine adopted by the elite all over

Europe from the eighteenth century onwards. It was worshipped as a symbol of

haute culture and not for its culinary values alone.

It is important to note that foreign cuisines are usually adopted by the e lite, but

rarely enter home cookery of the middle- and lower-classes. However, incorporation

of a single foreign dish into the local diet of the population is quite common. Ishige

(1993, 1994) presumes the migration of dishes is almost always based on such a two-

step processfirst a foreign cuisine appears either in the form of a restaurant or in

the form of high-society cuisine, and later dishes from this cuisine di ffuse further.

By dishes I refer to foodstuffs that are boiled, fried, fermented, mixed or

prepared in other ways. Examples of dishes that diffused abroad are spaghetti in theNetherlands, curry in the U.K., or sushi in California. Contrary to adopted foreign

cuisines which function autonomously next to the local food habits, foreign dishes

are incorporated into local meals, and therefore need to be transformed into a form

2 For example, an elementary cookery book from 1987 entitled Japanese food lessons included, nextto dishes that have been prepared and eaten in Japan for centuries, also recipes for Green peas rice, Ricewith cutlet topping, Pork saute (flavoured with soy), Beef and potato stew (flavoured with soy), andBlanched cabbage and dried young sardines(Arai, 1987). All these recipes belong to the WesternJapanesehybrid tradition within Japanese cookery (comparable to the AngloIndian tradition within Britishcookery). The English edition of the book Japanese cooking quick and easy from 1971 included recipesfor Fried pork, Vegetables rolled in beef, Sweet green peas, Fried pork on skewers, and Sukiyakiallemerged about half a century ago (Shufunotomo, 1971).


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120 K. CWIERTKA

familiar to the local population.3 Dishes contain cultural messages, but not to such

an extent as cuisines. They may retain or lose their ethnic character. The process of

adapting foreign dishes to local taste preferences is based on repetitive trial and

error, and eventually only a few culinary experiments gain wide acceptance.4 More-

over, other aspects, such as availability of ingredients or their price, play a role in

this process.

As a foodstuff I define any thing or material used for food, in other words,

anything that is used as an ingredient of a dish. It should be noted that things

regarded as edible by one culture might not be by another. Foodstu ffs have a cultural

connotation, but usually lose it once they migrate, and acquire new cultural meanings

quite quickly. Corn, for example, was a sacred food for American Indians, but for

Europeans became just a vegetable. Potatoes did not even grow in Europe before

the discovery of America, but for the past 100 years have been regarded as a mainstay

of Central and Northern European cooking. As adopted foodstuffs often need tobe prepared before they are consumed, and foreign cookery techniques according

to which they used to be prepared are unknown,5 it seems logical to cook them in

the same way as ingredients already known. Salaman (1985) in The history and social

influence of the potato gave an example of potatoes being prepared in the sixteenth

century in the same way as artichokes, carrots and parsnips. Similarly, beef at the

beginning of its presence in Japan was consumed in the form of a local dish, sukiyaki.6

N J E W HC

After the flourishing contacts with Europeans in the second half of the sixteenth

century, Japans tendency towards a policy of isolation grew stronger with the result

of closing borders to the outside world in 1638. For over 200 years, contacts with

Europeans were limited to trade with Dutchmen on the man-made island of Deshima

in Nagasaki under strict control of the government. Pressure from Western countries

whose ships started to appear on the Eastern shores from the first decades of the

nineteenth century gradually broke down the policy of isolation. By 1854, the feudal

government was obliged to open ports for foreign ships, and 14 years later the

government collapsed, overthrown by the oligarchy of middle-ranking samurai.

The oligarchy established two important aims that determined future Japanese

domestic and foreign policy. First, Japan had to avoid allowing itself to be confused

with China or Asia in Western eyes and acquire rather an image of an equal partner

for modern European and American national states. Second, the oligarchy needed

to find something other than military power to guarantee her political legitimacy onthe domestic stage. Westernization was chosen as a device leading to reach both

aims. On the one hand, by proving its eagerness for Westernization Japan was to

gain an equal status with Western countries. On the other hand, by using Western

3 It should be pointed out that modifications in taste, preparation, ingredients and even menus ofmigrated cuisines also occur. Nevertheless, they claim to be exact copies of the original.

4 For the comparative research on methods of domesticating Western dishes in Japan and Indiandishes in the U.K. see Cwiertka, 1997.

5 Such a case would have to be classified as a foreign dish, not a foreign foodstuff.6 A one-pot dish made of meat and vegetables flavoured with miso (a fermented paste of soybeans

and usually either barley or rice, with salt), or sweet soy sauce. All Japanese culinary terms in this articleare explained after Hosking, 1996.


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culture, the new Japanese elite established its position as the creator of new fashions

and new political order on the domestic stage.

Kumakura (1990) argues that, generally speaking, new cultural trends diffused

differently in Europe and pre-modern Japan. European aristocracy created new

fashions in order to distinguish themselves from the rest of society and later those

fashions were imitated by the bourgeois, and trickled-down further. In other words,

they diffused from the top to the bottom of the social ladder. In early-modern Japan,

new trends moved in the opposite direction. The source of new fashions was rooted

at the bottom of the social ladder, created by outsiders free from the stereotypes of

everyday life in order to escape from the feudal social structure and the control of

the central government. In the late nineteenth century, the new Japanese elite adopted

the European model by imitating and propagating Western culture. The rest of

society began to imitate models created by the elite, unconsciously accepting the

new leadership. The introduction of French cuisine to the Imperial court and itsadoption by the Japanese elite was a deliberate political move rather than a caprice

of the rich.

The Imperial court was served the first Western-style dinner on 18 August 1871

(Harada, 1993). Soon after, the public sphere of the Japanese elite had been divided

into two separate entities: Western and Japanese (Esenbel, 1994). Western-style

cuisine was served in a Western-style room, and the diners were dressed in a Western

style. The concept of Japaneseness, called Wa, stood in opposition to Yo, the concept

of Westernness, and in the context of food was represented by Japanese-style food

(wafu ryori) and Western-style food (yofu ryoryori). The concept of Chineseness7

existed for centuries in Japan but after the emergence of the Western-style fashion

came to be regarded as backward.

In the late nineteenth century three types of expensive restaurant could bedistinguished: Japanese, Western and Chinese; however, the Chinese cuisine was

gradually losing popularity (Maenobo, 1988). As far as culinary literature is con-

cerned, publications dealing with Western and Japanese cuisine were then far more

numerous than those on Chinese food (Ajinomoto, 1992). Nevertheless, the formal

classification of the worlds food included Japanese, Chinese and Western categories;

Japanese cuisine with high aesthetic values, nourishing Western cuisine, and Chinese

cuisine described as something in between the two (Noguchi, 1880). This statement

was first made in 1880 in the columns of the magazine Fuzoku Gaho (Illustrated

manners and customs). Later, this view was disseminated via household literature.

However, while Western cookery was deliberately promoted through the activities

of various individuals and institutions as nourishing and modern, Chinese food

began to attract the attention of cookery writers only from the 1920s onwards.Chinese dishes, sold at cheap restaurants opened by Chinese immigrants, gained

popularity of the working classes after World War I. Soon, some of these dishes

were included in the menus of Japanese restaurants, and later into home cookery.

Japanese, Western and Chinese restaurants provided the main catering styles in

Japan before World War II.8 Apart from the fact that Chinese and Western cookery

in Japan was unconsciously modified, and that modern Japanese cuisine adopted

new ingredients, these three styles were not supposed to be mixed. The blending of

7 Naming of the concept of Chineseness changed depending on changes of dynasties ruling in China.8 Korean restaurants spread after World War II, followed by various American chains in the 1970s.

The fashion for ethnic restaurants started in the 1980s.


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122 K. CWIERTKA

the three styles began to take place in cheap eating houses and in home cookery

from the early twentieth century onwards. In other words, diets of the middle- and

working classes were becoming hybrid. The upper circles of society strictly followed

the distinction between Japanese, Chinese and Western style.

C E U M-

The increasing influence of Western haute cuisine on the life of the Japanese elite

had a great impact on the attitude of the whole society towards Western food. This

is evident with beef as the example. Meat consumption was officially forbidden in

Japan from the seventh century onwards.9 Although game and poultry were con-

sumed, beef and pork remained taboo. In 1872, Emperor Meiji (18521912) broke

this taboo by publicly consuming beef. This act had great consequences on Japanesediet, as within 6 years 556 butchers shops were operating in the whole district of

Tokyo (Harada, 1995). That does not mean, however, that the Japanese adopted

Western meat dishes for daily use. It must be kept in mind that the majority of the

Japanese consumed beef in the form of gyunabe (later called sukiyaki), which was

not a Western dish. It was a Japanese dish that was originally prepared with game.

As the only modification that occurred was the use of beef, the phenomenon of

gyunabe can be classified as the adoption of a foreign foodstuff.

The developments of the late nineteenth century set the stage for the culinary

transformation which took place in the following century. First, Western dishes

began to be adopted by the Japanese urban middle-classes who, contrary to the

elite, could not afford to imitate a purely Western-style diet at home. The incorporation

of Western dishes into Japanese home cookery actually began in the early twentiethcentury, although voices propagating this idea could be heard earlier. Economic and

social transition in Japan formed the background for this development.

Rapid industrialization resulted in something of a population explosion among

the middle-classes. Factory owners needed the services of lawyers, bankers, managers

and clerks, while growing towns needed more shops, more schools and more

clergymen. Demand created supply, and a great many ambitious young men were

ready and waiting for the opportunity to move up in the world. A great number of

second and third sons, who, by Japanese law, could not inherit anything, moved to

cities and formed the new urban middle-class. The majority of these new-type middle-

class men were wage earners employed by private firms, banks and governmental

offices. The traditional Japanese family, in which the eldest son and his wife and

other unmarried sons and daughters lived with their parents, gradually transformed

into a smaller unit. The focus of the urban family came to be on the husbandwife

relationship rather than on a house. For wage earners the economic significance

of the family as a unit of production disappeared, and the role of the middle-class

woman changed into that of a housewife. This fact had a great impact on the further

development of Japanese domestic cookery.

Following the Western example, courses in home economics were established at

Japanese womens universities. Sasaki (1911), a lecturer at the Womens University

of Japan (Nihon joshi daigaku), emphasized that changes in everyday life and the

way of thinking required changes in the Japanese kitchen as well. She emphasized

9 For more details concerning consumption of meat in Japan, see Cwiertka, 1996.


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the need for variety in diet, in particular, and this variety was to be achieved by

adoptions from abroad. Food specialists became involved in food experiments in

order to provide houswives with new ideas for tasty, nutritious, interesting and, at

the same time, cheap meals for the urban family.

Cookery columns of the growing number of womens magazines encouraged

middle-class housewives to try Western dishes and include them into their daily

menus. Dishes propagated by womens magazines and other publications were

carefully chosen from a wide range of possibilities. Difficulty of preparation, necessary

equipmentfor example an ovenand the high cost of ingredients were the main

obstacles for the popularizing of Western dishes. A solution to these problems was

given in an article Kondate ni tsukite no chui (Advice concerning the menu) which

appeared in the magazine Katei shuho (Home Weekly) in 1904 (Editorial, 1904a).

We should as much as possible enlarge the number of cookery techniques. For example,we should in right proportion combine Western food with Japanese and Chinese in order

to achieve variety. We should if possible use Japanese ingredients in Western dishes, such

as udon [soft, thick wheat noodles] and somen [thin wheat noodles] instead of macaroni,

and katsuobushi [shavings of dried, smoked, mould-cured bonito] instead of cheese.

Those ingredients that were too expensive or too difficult to get were regularly

omitted or replaced by Japanese ingredients. Too-complicated cookery techniques

were simplified, and Japanese seasonings were added to make the dish more familiar.

Also, names of dishes were changed in order to make them more suited to the

Japanese menu. Example 1 (Editorial, 1908) demonstrates the addition of a Japanese

ingredient to a Western dish.

Example 1. Stew with somen

Make stew from leak and meat. Add boiled somen cut into pieces, and season with pepper.

Experiments with Western food went further. The Japanese were inventing new

dishes with a Western touch; Western versions of Japanese dishes, or Japanese

versions of European dishes. In Example 2 (Nihon, 1909), chocolate sauce is used

in a Japanese dessert, and in Example 3 (Editorial, 1917) a Japanized spread is used

on a Western sandwich.

Example 2. Chimaki (dumplings made of rice-flour, boiled or steamed) in chocolate sauce

Make dough of water and rice flour. Form long (about 3 cm) and narrow dumplings; boil

or steam them. Pour chocolate sauce over them.

Example 3. (no name given)

Soak dried abalone in water and marinate it for some time. Chop it, and mix with choppedwakame (seaweed, Undaria pinnitifida) and mayonnaise sauce. Serve on bread.

The easiest way to achieve an innovative character in diet was to serve Western

dishes in a Japanese-style meal, as in Example 4 (Editorial, 1907). Bread is treated

here as a side dish accompanying rice and soupbasic elements of the Japanese-

style meal.10 The opposite situation was also possible (see Example 5), namely serving

10 For the majority of the urban population who could afford consumption of rice on a daily basis,rice was the core of every meal. However, Japanese peasantsactual producers of riceate it only atspecial occasions. The rice consumption in Japan diminished greatly in the 1930s and 1940s owing to adecreased production and the limited imports. In the 1950s the pre-war consumption level was achieved.For the importance of rice in Japanese life, see Ohnuki-Tierney, 1993.


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Japanese dishes as an element of a Western-style meal, such as broiled fisha

compulsory element of a Japanese-style breakfast (Editorial, 1904b).


Breakfast: bread/rice with shrimps and yuba (soy-milk skin)/sunomono (vegetables and/or

slices of seafood dressed in vinegar).


Breakfast: pear jam with cream/broiled fish/bread/coffee.

Experiments with Western food continued, but by the third decade of the twentith

century a certain framework of acceptability was created. The basic rules concerning

the blending of Japanese and Western foodstuffs, seasonings and cooking techniques

were established. Although, in the meantime, some experiments were rejected andforgotten, some formed the prototype of modern Japanese cookery, and diffused

among urban middle-class households. New dishes were no longer perceived as

exotic, but still regarded as a novelty. However, the historical circumstances of the

1930s and the 1940s accelerated their diffusion.

F S, W O

Until 1945 the role of the military was crucial in the Westernization of the

Japanese diet. First of all, the Japanese food industry developed, stimulated by the

governmental orders for the army and navy during the SinoJapanese (18941895)

and RussoJapanese (19041905) wars. Industrial foods entered the civilian market

after World War I, and for a long time were associated with the military diet. Next

to the products of Western origin, such as canned green peas, pineapple and sardines,

Japanese inventions were also manufactured. For example, Yamato-niwas the name

of canned beef boiled with soy sauce, sugar and ginger root. Canned beef Yamato-

ni was originally provided for fighting Japanese soldiers, and combined nutritional

beef with the familiar taste of soy sauce (Ishige, pers. comm.). Yamato-ni literally

means: boiled in Yamato style, the ending -ni meaning boiled and Yamato, being

the old name of Japan. This name was often used to represent Japaneseness, such

as in Yamato-e (Japanese style painting) or Yamato-uta (old Japanese poetry).

Consequently the name Yamato-ni was supposed to support the morale of fighting

soldiers, but in the course of time came to mean any meat boiled in sweet soy with

ginger.By the 1920s, a firm repertoire of Westernized dishes was served on a large scale

in the Japanese Army as well as in the Navy. Examples 6 and 7 come from the

cookery book for navy cooks containing favourite dishes served on Japanese battle-

ships in 1936 (Kaigun Shukeika, 1936). These dishes were nourishing, easy to prepare,

relatively inexpensive, and enthusiastically welcomed by the sailors.

Example 6. Beef stew with miso

Ingredients

Fresh beef, carrots, potatoes, onions, miso, tomato sauce, salt, pepper, beef fat, flour, soy

sauce, sake (rice wine with an alcohol content of about 16%).


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Preparation

Cut beef into pieces of about 10 momme (1 momme=374 g), peel vegetables and cut

them in four. Heat beef fat in a pan and fry meat until the outside becomes golden brown.

Add some flour and fry 23 min, then add hot water until it covers meat, some sake,

tomato sauce and miso. Stew until meat becomes slightly hard, then add vegetables, salt,

pepper and soy sauce, and continue simmering.

Example 7. Boiled soboro11 potatoes

Ingredients

Fresh beef, potatoes, onions, ginger root, soy sauce, katakuriko12, sugar.

Preparation

Peel potatoes, cut them in pieces and rinse in water. Mince beef and chop onions. Let

water, soy sauce and sugar boil for a while, later add potatoes and take them out when

done. Mix the result of the sauce with minced meat, chopped onions, ginger root and

katakuriko. Put on fire until it gets thick. Serve on potatoes.

By the third decade of the twentieth century, Japanized Western dishes such as

croquettes, cutlets, stews and curries acquired a clear military connotation. They

started to be associated with the healthy and strong appeal of the Japanese military

men rather than with the West. For example, in the chapter entitled: Soldiers and

food from the propaganda booklet for children published in 1943, the following

passage can be found:

Soldiers are gluttons. When they notice a cow passing the battlefield they immediately

feel like eating a beef steak. Or, and this is a slightly dirty story, once they see a urinating

horse they recall how they drank beer in the homeland. (Muneta, 1943)

Amalgamation of Western foods with the image of the Japanese military was sostrong that their consumption was propagated by the authorities despite a general

policy of removing Western elements from all aspects of life in Japan. Militarization

of the society, from the mid-1930s in particular, accelerated Westernization of the

Japanese diet, as military concepts, including the Westernized concept of proper

nutrition, began to encompass the civilian lifestyle. The general public was encouraged

through popular and professional publications to follow military nutritional advice.

Westernized diet, which in the meantime became the hallmark of the military lifestyle,

was enthusiastically propagated by the military regime. Moreover, the School of

Nutrition, opened by the military-based association, Ryoyukai, in 1939, trained

dieticians according to the military models. Pupils of this school continued to

determine the future menus of factory and school canteens and other places of mass

catering far beyond the end of the Pacific War.The growing food shortage was another factor responsible for the popularization

of Western foods.13 Ironically, while new, more Japanese-sounding names for baking

11 Crumble topping for which minced chicken or meat; shredded, boiled shrimp and fish are lightlyparched, seasoning being optional.

12 Flour of Japanese dogs tooth violet (Erythronium japonicum). Under the same name, potato starchis now normally used as a cheap substitute.

13 The shortage of rice caused the most serious change. Production of tubers and grains other thanrice was more efficient than rice cultivation. A switch into a diet based on tubers, wheat and other grainsrequired different side dishes. Vegetables of Western origin, onions, cabbage, beans etc. were easy to farmin small home gardens which urban housewives were advised to cultivate. Moreover, one-pan dishes,such as soups and stews, became prevalent owing to the shortage of fuel. Bread and ships biscuits wereparticularly efficient, as they could be stored for a long time.


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126 K. CWIERTKA

powder and wheat flour were being invented in order to meet the requirements of

the nationalistic policy of the government (Zenkoku, 1941), foods of Western origin

were becoming more and more popular. For example, diffusion of the custom of

eating bread and potatoes as a staple was very closely related to the shortage of

rice, starting in mid-1930s. While vast amounts of food were sent to the war front,

and the working force concentrated on production for military purposes, food

shortage broke even the most conservative opponents of Westernization of the

Japanese diet, such as the Society for Research on Japanese Cuisine ( Nihon ryori

kenkyukai). This organization for professional chefs was founded in 1930 to protect

Japanese cuisine from Western influences, and its activity focused on organizing

culinary contests and publishing a monthly newsletter Kaiho (Bulletin). Despite this

attitude, the society held a Substitute Food Contest in September 1940, and among

the winning dishes were buttered toast sprinkled with shrimp powder, deep-fried

noodles in curry sauce, and potato pancake sandwiches (Nihon, 1940).The reality of the food shortage remained the main issue concerning the Japanese

diet between the 1930s and the mid-1950s. Almost 20 years of food shortage had a

very strong impact on the future of Japanese cuisine, namely its democratization

and regional homogenization. Although the new, American influences reached

Japanese eating habits from the mid-1940s onwards, the first two post-war decades

should be viewed rather as a diffusion of the urban middle-class model of consumption

created in the pre-war period.

C R

Hobsbawm (1983) sees the contrast between the constant changes and innovationsof the modern world, and the attempt to structure at least some parts of social life

within it as unchanging and invariant, as one of the reasons for inventing traditions.

This mechanism was partly responsible for the creation of Japanese modern tra-

ditions, as Japan underwent a rapid economical, political, cultural and social

transformation within the past century. For example, the Japanese-style traditional

wedding ceremony in a shrine is a modified version of the Christian ceremony and

does not go back further than the beginning of this century (Inoue, 1990). The

concept of the traditional Japanese diet emerged within the past 100 years as well.

On the other hand, diffusion of the healthy diet with relatively few regional

differences suited the political aims of the Japanese national state. It needed a strong

nation with deep nationalistic feelings, and both aims could be achieved by proper

nourishment and the idea of national unity embodied in a uniform diet.

It should be kept in mind, however, that specific historical circumstances de-

termined the culinary transition of modern Japan. One of the most important factors

which should be taken into consideration was Japans confrontation with the West

at the time when Western nations were controlling a considerable part of Asia.

The most significant aspect of the early Meiji [the name of an historical period in Japan

(18681912)] times was Japans encounter with the Western world and its deliberate

adoption of Western civilization and examples. For a millennium China had been a

neighboring cultural colossus in terms of which Japan had formed and in a sense defined

itself. Japanese culture and taste, blended with those of China, had come to be referred

to as east Asian (Toyo), and that remained permanently a part of Japanese consciousness.


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But the country of China was no longer an object of esteem; instead it provided an object

lesson of the dangers of stagnation and overconfidence. (Collcutt, 1988)

Although a modern version of Japanese culinary tradition emerged on the

basis of the pre-modern legacy and adoptions from Chinese as well as Western

cuisine, at the end of the nineteenth century the impact of Western civilization on

modern Japanese food culture was most significant. A relative lack of interest towards

Chinese food at that time, despite a long history of culinary relations with China,

proves the change of the Japanese attitude towards Chinese civilization (Ishige, 1994:

199200).

As is evident in the reception of Western food, in order to modernize itself Japan

chose the civilization stronger than that of Chinathe West. Despite a huge cultural

gap between Western and Japanese civilizations, within half a century not only

Western ingredients but also dishes diffused into the Japanese kitchen. It is importantto note that this culinary modification was a consequence of a deliberate policy with

the aim of improving dietary variety and nutrient quality.

Western superiority in military terms was to an extent responsible for Japans

emphasis on the military development of the country, and in fact the French and

later the German model was imitated by the Imperial Japanese Army, and the

English standard was followed by the Imperial Japanese Navy. As argued elsewhere,

the involvement of the military in the matters of public nutrition was closely

related to the aim of improving the physical condition of potential conscripts. This

involvement, in turn, was essential for the development and di ffusion of the hybrid

JapaneseWestern form of diet.

It is difficult to find a culinary culture without a trace of foreign influence, and

the tendency to further cross-culturalism seems to overwhelm our diets. Although amutual influence of peoples eating habits is quite evident, there are great di fferences

in the way and the extent to which adoption of foreign foods takes place. In a

popular view, the Japanese are the nation of imitators building their future on the

basis of foreign adoptions. It cannot be denied that the development of the culinary

culture of modern Japan has been fuelled by Western foodstuffs, dishes and cuisines.

However, in the authors judgment, the nature of the Japanese alone cannot be made

responsible for this transformation. The role of historical circumstances was far

more important in the shaping of the culinary culture of modern Japan.

R

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Received 6 January 1996, revision 28 February 1997

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