Food Byways: the Sugar Road by Masami Ishii
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Vol. 27 No. 3 October 2013 Kikkoman’s quarterly intercultural forum for the exchange of ideas on food SPOTLIGHT JAPAN: JAPANESE STYLE: Ohagi and Botamochi 5 MORE ABOUT JAPANESE COOKING 6 Japan’s Evolving Train Stations 4 DELECTABLE JOURNEYS: Nagano Oyaki 5 KIKKOMAN TODAY 8 THE JAPANESE TABLE Food Byways: The Sugar Road by Masami Ishii This third installment of our current Feature series traces Japan’s historical trade routes by which various foods were originally conveyed around the country. This time we look at how sugar came to make its way throughout Japan. Food Byways: The Sugar Road From Medicine to Sweets to be imported annually, and it was eventually According to a record of goods brought to Japan from disseminated throughout the towns of Hakata China by the scholar-priest Ganjin (Ch. Jianzhen; and Kokura in what is known today as Fukuoka 688–763), founder of Toshodaiji Temple in Nara, Prefecture in northern Kyushu island. As sugar cane sugar is thought to have been brought here in made its way into various regions, different ways the eighth century. Sugar was considered exceedingly of using it evolved. Reflecting this history, in the precious at that time, and until the thirteenth 1980s the Nagasaki Kaido highway connecting the century it was used solely as an ingredient in the cities of Nagasaki and Kokura was dubbed “the practice of traditional Chinese medicine. Sugar Road.” In Japan, the primary sweeteners had been After Japan adopted its national seclusion laws maltose syrup made from glutinous rice and malt, in the early seventeenth century, cutting off trade and a sweet boiled-down syrup called amazura made and contact with much of the world, Nagasaki from a Japanese ivy root. But by the late fourteenth became the sole trading port through which sugar or early fifteenth century, sugar was being used as a and other goods were imported from overseas. By the food ingredient here: it is mentioned in a teikin orai eighteenth century, the quantity of sugar imported (a textbook on wisdom for daily life) dating from on Dutch ships was between 500-1,000 tons that time that describes sato yokan, a jellied sweet annually—and this rose to over twice that amount, made with red beans and sato (sugar). An illustrated if we include sugar imported on Chinese ships. As a scroll titled Shichiju ichiban shokunin uta-awase result of the increase in sugar imports, a special (“Seventy-one poetry matches on 142 artisans”), storehouse was built in Nagasaki from which sugar dating from the late fifteenth to early sixteenth was shipped to wholesale warehouses in Osaka and century, depicts sato manju, steamed buns filled then distributed around the country. with red beans and sugar. From these early examples, it seems that sugar had come to be used in making Along the Sugar Road jellied sweets and steamed buns, and thus its varied The culture of sugar in Japan continued to flourish in uses gradually spread throughout society. many ways. In Nagasaki, sugar was used to prepare dishes served in meals; however, sugar was better Sweets from the West matched to making diverse sweets that were rooted When missionaries from Portugal and Spain began in Western influences. Following along the sugar coming to Japan in the late-sixteenth century, they road, we find kasutera in Nagasaki, a baked cookie introduced nanban-gashi sweets, including konpeito called maruboro in Saga, and a golden fios de ovos (Portuguese: confeito) and kasutera (castella sponge confection from Fukuoka known in Japanese as cake). When Nagasaki port opened to trade in keiran somen that is made of threads of egg yolk 1571, some 100 kilograms or more of sugar began cooked in sugar syrup. It is unsurprising that the founders of two of Japan’s leading makers of sweets were both born in this area. The culture of sugar did not linger in northern Japan Sea Kyushu alone, but spread along the distribution Tokyo routes to Osaka and Edo (now Tokyo). The confection Osaka to Osaka known as taruto (Dutch: taart), for which the city Amami of Matsuyama in Ehime Prefecture on the island Oshima Kokura of Shikoku is famous, is in fact is a kind of moist Fukuoka Kagawa Matsuyama sponge roll filled with sweet bean paste. This style Saga Hakata Tokushima of cake originated when the lord of the Matsuyama domain, in charge of guarding the city of Nagasaki, Nagasaki Kyushu ordered his men to learn how to make Western- style sweets. Originally, the wrapped filling was jam, Pacific Ocean but bean paste was later substituted to reflect local tastes, as occurred in many cases following on the Japan’s “Sugar Road” introduction of Western sweets. 2 Clockwise from top left: maruboro, keiran somen, konpeito, taruto and kasutera Domestic Production eighteenth century, domestically popular that ordinary people began to The production of sugar in Japan produced white sugar had widely sprinkle it on foods such as cooked itself was long in coming. In the early circulated in the market. Most rice or udon noodles. seventeenth century, it is said that notably, in Shikoku’s Sanuki and Awa Today, Japan imports some someone from Amami (today part of provinces (present-day Kagawa and 1.3 million tons of sugar annually. As Kagoshima Prefecture) brought back Tokushima prefectures, respectively), these imports have increased through the method of making kurozato (an refining techniques were advanced the years, sugar has slowly come unrefined, dark brown sugar) after enough around the 1800s to produce to influence and redefine Japanese being shipwrecked in China. The the fine, white wasanbon sugar that cuisine through its use as a day-to-day manufacture of white sugar required is still prized today as an ingredient in seasoning in ordinary cooking, as well advanced refining technology, but the high quality Japanese confectionery. as its appearance in an infinite variety eighth Tokugawa shogun Yoshimune Meanwhile, great quantities of of sweets—not only in Western- (1684-1751) encouraged the cultivation sugar appear to have circulated in style pastries and cakes, but in of sugar cane, and by the end of the Japan not only through the regular contemporary and traditional Japanese import markets, but also on confectionery. the black markets. Domestic production, which started in the early cover eighteenth century, helped Illustration of Dejima in Nagasaki port. During Japan’s national seclusion, the tiny island of Dejima was the increase availability and only area where the Dutch were allowed to live and this probably added impetus to trade. Tokan rankan-zu-emaki (1801). Courtesy to its general consumption. Nagasaki Museum of History and Culture In the late eighteenth Author’s profile century, sugar became so Masami Ishii was born in 1958. He graduated from Tokyo Gakugei University in 1980 from which he later received his Masters degree in Japanese language education in 1984. Prof. Ishii specializes in Japanese literature and folklore, and he has been teaching at Tokyo Gakugei University since 1993. He has authored many books and publications such Manufacturing kurozato during the Edo era (1603-1867) in Amami, Wasanbon sugar as Tono Monogatari-e-no-Goshotai (An introduction an illustration from the book Nihon sankai meibutsu-zue (1797). to tales of Tono) and Mukashi-banashi-to-Kanko— Courtesy National Diet Library digital archives Kataribe-no-Shozo (Folktales and travel—a portrait of a storyteller). FOOD FORUM October 2013 3 Japan’s Evolving Train Stations Traditions and trends in Japanese food culture Tokyo Station’s GRANSTA shopping arcade offers a variety of foods including bento lunchboxes and prepared dishes. Major train stations in Japan have the station building. The rail station changed drastically in recent years. Pass itself was updated with enhanced safety through the wicket and find not just features and a renovated facade. your train, but busy shopping centers After five and a half years, the where you can buy almost anything renovation and preservation of including souvenirs, clothing, household Tokyo Station’s Marunouchi Station goods—and food. Grab a quick lunch Building, designated an Important before boarding, buy prepared dishes Cultural Property, was completed in for dinner before heading home, visit October 2012, faithfully reproducing a restaurant for a full-course meal or the historic building as it appeared Stations are a glass of wine: any convenience you after its construction in 1914. Here, might imagine is right at the station. besides countless convenience stores now a lifestyle The Japanese rail system became and souvenir shops, many station destination well established during the late businesses now feature on-site kitchens nineteenth century; today, rail- that produce freshly made foods. development efforts concentrate on Some of these include small outlets those areas immediately surrounding of well-known restaurants, including major urban stations, where some of Tokyo’s most famous ramen information, activities and commerce noodle shops. These have become are increasingly concentrated. Until hugely popular, as have the shops recently, train stations were no more of several major confectionery than transportation hubs; today they companies where, thanks to their in- are multi-use lifestyle destinations that house kitchens, visitors can observe integrate commercial and office preparations and enjoy a condensed facilities, hotels, apartments, shops, factory-tour experience, then sample restaurants and other services. just-made goodies. The seasonal In 2012, Osaka Station underwent merchandise and exclusive goods sold significant redevelopment and has at these shops are a tremendous draw, become, in effect, a small city within an and so these days the train station enormous complex comprising a hotel, bustles not only with travelers, but Osaka Station clinic, cinemas and over 200 stores and with curious—and hungry—shoppers restaurants that all interconnect with and visitors of all ages.