Eating Edo, Sensing Japan: Food Branding and Market Culture in Late Tokugawa Japan, 1780-1868
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EATING EDO, SENSING JAPAN: FOOD BRANDING AND MARKET CULTURE IN LATE TOKUGAWA JAPAN, 1780-1868 BY AKIRA SHIMIZU DISSERTATION Submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy in History in the Graduate College of the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, 2011 Urbana, Illinois Doctoral Committee: Professor Ronald P. Toby, Chair Associate Professor Clare H. Crowston Associate Professor Craig M. Koslofsky Professor Daniel Botsman, Yale University ii Abstract This dissertation explores the roles specialty foods in the political capital of Edo (modern-day Tokyo) in the Tokugawa period (1603-1868). The development of infrastructures as well as the proliferation of the publishing industry resulted in a considerable scale of information and material circulations in Japan. Cookbooks, travel and shopping guides, and gazetteers introduced different kinds of foods, including regional specialties, prestigious food shops, which contracted the bakufu and other powerful officials, luxury foods to which commoners did not have access, and foods, eating of which was considered taboo. From the early eighteenth century, wholesalers in Edo formed trade associations to secure the shipments of various commodities from origins of production. They paid fees to the bakufu (military government) for the protection of their rights to handle commodities and trade channels; the bakufu required them to supply certain commodities to Edo Castle. However, in the end of the eighteenth century, independent merchants who were not affiliated with trade associations and peasants and fishermen whose products and catches were not acknowledged as “specialties” began disrupting the bakufu-protected trade channels. This disruption was particularly problematic in the trade of specialty foods. By focusing on five foods, eggs, kelp, grapes, pork, and whitefish, this dissertation examines how they sought to promote their foods outside the network of trade associations and how trade associations attempted to maintain their rights. It is my hope that the five case studies will show the process through which independent merchants, peasants, and fishermen challenged the existing trade network and trade association proactively protected their rights to handle certain foods. iii Acknowledgements This completion of this dissertation has been impossible without the support and encouragement from many people on the both side of the Pacific Ocean. In the United States, my greatest debts are to my dissertation advisor, Professor Ronald P. Toby. His deep understanding of early-modern Japanese history and primary sources significantly contributed to the shaping of this study. In addition, he constantly encouraged me to look at different materials in different ways and to have “fun” in studying history. Conversations with him have been and will be always my important source of inspiration. I am grateful to Professors Clare H. Crowston, Craig M. Koslofsky, and Daniel Botsman for invaluable feedback. Their thought-provoking questions and numerous suggestions and comments are certainly a great asset with which I will continue improving this study. In Japan, I benefitted from Professor Yoshida Nobuyuki and his graduate students at the University of Tokyo. Professor Yoshida generously invited me to his graduate seminar where I was given an opportunity to present my research. His graduate students helped me read early modern manuscripts with patience. I still hear what he said to me at my farewell party: “Shimizu-san, struggle with primary sources more!” (motto shiryô to kakutô shite). Also, I would like to show my gratitude for Professor Tsuruta Kei who agreed to my advisor at the Historiographical Institute at the University of Tokyo. Outside academia, I am grateful to a number of friends in Urbana-Champaign, Memphis TN, Tokyo, and in my hometown. They are too many to list. Finally, I want to thank my mother for unwavering support throughout the years. iv TABLE OF CONTENT MAPS...............................................................................................................................................1 NOTES TO THE READER.............................................................................................................3 INTRODUCTION...........................................................................................................................4 CHAPTER 1: THE CULINARY LANDSCAPE OF THE LATE TOKUGAWA PERIOD: FAMINES, JIBUN NIMOTSU, AND THE PROBLEM OF SERIGAI.........................................29 CHAPTER 2: WHOLESALERS VS. AN INDIVIDUAL MERCHANT: SHÔSUKE AND HIS ATTEMPT TO PROMOTE EZO KELP.......................................................................................71 CHAPTER 3: IN DEFENSE OF A REGIONAL SPECIALTY: THE PREEMINENCE AND LEGITIMACY OF KÔSHÛ GRAPES.........................................................................................99 CHAPTER 4: PIGS AND BATTLESHIPS: PORK FOR “RICH COUNTRY, STRONG ARMY”........................................................................................................................................138 CHAPTER 5: LEGITIMATIZING WITH THE PAST: THE YUISHO OF FISHERMEN AND THE END OF THEIR EARLY-MODERN PRIVILEGES.........................................................174 CONCLUSION............................................................................................................................209 BIBLIOGRAPHY........................................................................................................................217 1 Maps Map of Japan 2 Map of Edo 3 Notes to the Reader All dates are given according to the old lunar calendar that was used in Japan until 1873. Following the historiographic convention, I use dates that appear in primary sources and years converted from the lunar calendar to the Gregorian calendar. Japanese names follow the East Asian tradition with the family name first. 4 Introduction Published in twelve parts between 1802 and 1822, Juppensha Ikku’s Tôkaidôchu hizakurige (Shank’s Mare) is a humorous novel (kokkei bon) about the trip of Yaji and Kita from Edo (modern-day Tokyo) to Osaka.1 The amusing experiences at various post stations that are recounted in the text take the reader back to the landscape of the early-modern Tôkaidô highway, which still functions as the major highway in Japan, connecting the nation’s two largest cities. Crossing rivers, passing through checkpoints (sekisho), and staying at inns, the two men in Juppensha’s narrative guide the reader through a wide range of regional specialties including natural landscapes, famous inns, and Buddhist temples. In addition to other specialties, Yaji and Kita often identify regions with food. For example, in Odawara (modern-day Kanagawa Prefecture), they find: Repeating “Odawara’s specialty (umezuke no meibutsu tote), pickled plums,” girls try to entice travelers into their inns. Or, after passing Shinden (located west of Numazu) where they pass through a neighborhood filled with the smell of its regional specialty, grilled eels, they arrive at Kurasawa right after crossing the Yui River. As soon as they walk into town, Juppensha writes “Abalones and turban shells are the regional specialty here (awabi sazae no meibutsu nite). Female divers (ama) sell fresh ones after catching them in the ocean.” Finally, in Abekawa in modern day Shizuoka City, they find teahouses standing along the highway alongside the area’s regional specialty, Abekawa 1The bibliographic information was generated by the “Union Catalogue of Early Japanese Books” maintained by the National Institute of Japanese Literature accessible at http://www.nijl.ac.jp/. In this dissertation, unless otherwise noted, all bibliographic information has been found in this database. 5 rice cakes (Abekawa mochi).2 In these ways, Juppensha makes foods represent many cites on the Tôkaidô highway. The introduction of regional specialties was not limited to the kind of popular representation seen in Juppensha’s work. During the Tokugawa period (1603-1868), domains sought to promote their regional specialties in the political capital, Edo (modern-day Tokyo). For example, as the historian Mark Ravina shows us, Tokushima domain (modern-day Tokushima Prefecture) found its indigo highly profitable as the development of the cotton textile industry in Osaka—the closest commercial center—caused growing demand for it in the early eighteenth century.3 While expanding the supply of Awa indigo in Osaka, the domain also appointed thirty- six merchants in the Kantô region (including Edo) with oligopsony privileges in 1802. That is, only these thirty-six merchants were authorized to handle indigo cubes shipped out from the domain.4 From the end of the eighteenth century on, many domains, in many cases to overcome their financial crises, promoted their regional specialties in Edo. Like Tokushima, they appointed merchants to take charge of receiving auctioning specialties to wholesalers, while forbidding these merchants from directly selling them to individual retailers. Occasionally, the bakufu (military government) produced comprehensive lists of items for which domains requested permission to promote in Edo.5 Like Awa indigo, many foods, drinks, and food-related businesses such as restaurants, retailers, and wholesalers were given special values through the popular publication of rankings 2Juppensha Ikku, “Tôkaidôchu hizakurige,” in Nihon koten bungaku zenshû, vol. 49 (Tokyo: Shôgakukan, 1970), 95, 128, 140, 149.