The document discusses the history of Japanese food from the 16th century to modern times. It traces foreign influences that introduced foods like tempura, bread, and peppers. In the early modern era, a peace dividend led to an agricultural boom and the spread of new crops from the Americas. Everyday meals for common people centered around rice with soup and pickles, while elites had more variety. Sushi originated as a preservation method and street food before becoming popular nationwide. Modern refrigeration and globalization have made sushi and sashimi accessible worldwide.

1. Japanese Food History
Early Modern Change
Sushi!

2. Japan

3. Nagoya: Atsuta Shrine
Sake Barrels & Shinto Priest

4. New Foods
• 16th century Foreign Influences:
– Korean-style (or Mongolian) Teppan yaki
– Portuguese Tempura and Castela cake
– "Pan"
– Indian pepper.
– Chinese Ramen

5. Early Modern Japan (17th to 19th c.)
• Agricultural Boom: Peace Dividend
– 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

6. 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)

7. Rural 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

8. Urban Food
• Restaurants and tea houses
• sushi
• Tempura
• buckweat soba, wheat ramen,
• rice cake/bean soup
• eel
• Box Lunches: Bento

9. Bento Lunch on Lacquer

10. Nagoya: Soba Shop

11. Sushi
• Vinegar and salt are preservatives, pickling
agents.
• Stuffing fish with salted or sugared rice causes
fermentation, a technique from China.
• Fresher versions, using rice wine vinegar,
develop in the 1600s, become urban staples
• Usually eaten with ginger, mustard and/or soy,
for health and flavor.

12. Sushi Lunch, Hilo (KTA
Supermarket)

13. Sushi, cont.
• Nigiri rice ball sushi develops in the early 19th
century in Edo as street food.
– Finger food from stalls, chopsticks at the theater.
• Wasabi mostly elite seasoning until 19c.
• Nori seaweed (actually algae) wrappers were
luxury foods until 1950s British botanist
Kathleen Drew-Baker discovered their
reproductive cycle. Now mass-produced.
More popular in US than in Japan.

14. Sushi Chef, Nagoya, 1985

15. Sashimi
• Raw fish an elite delicacy (and fisherman's
food) from earliest recorded history.
• Most of Japan is coastline, so elites could
always get fresh fish, but seasonal varieties.
• Modern refrigeration and ice manufacture
makes it middle-class food
• Modern fishing technology and prosperity
makes it cheaper, available for everyone.
• Now fresh and raw fish is the standard, not
salted or preserved.

17. Global Sushi
• Japanese restaurants in the US West, but not
popular except with expatriate Japanese.
• 1970s, with rise of Japanese economy and
health food fads, sees West coast sushi
become popular
• Spreads to other major cities in 1980s.
• New Global Ingredients: mayonaise, avocado,
cream cheese, spicy sauces

18. Kansas City Hen House Sushi

19. The Right Way To Eat Sushi
• Diversity of Traditions
– Regional (Tokyo/Osaka, etc.)
– Common v. Urban v. Elite
– Seasonal
• Seasonal "rules" develop from pre-refrigeration,
pre-industrial transportation era
• Purity, simplicity, delicacy based on kaiseki elite
Zen influence, blends with pop culture in 20c.
• mid-20c Wartime rationing created "eat
everything/no preferences" culture

20. Atom Boy Revolving Family Sushi

21. 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
• Edo: Art in Japan, 1615-1868 by the National Gallery of Art,
Washington, DC
• Michael Ashkenazi, Jeanne Jacob. The Essence of
Japanese Cuisine: An Essay on Food and Culture. Curzon
Press, 2000.
• Trevor Corson, The Zen of Fish: The Story of Sushi from
Samurai to Supermarket, Harper Collins, 2007.
• Pictures by Jonathan Dresner
– http://www.flickr.com/photos/jondresner/
• Crocheted Sushi by Karin McAdams