The Flavor of Edo Spans the Globe -The Food of Edo Becomes a Food
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The Flavor of Edo Spans the Globe The Food of Edo Becomes a Food of the World Zenjiro Watanabe Many readers were surprised by the article, "A Comparison of Mr. Watanabe was born in Tokyo in the Cultural Levels of Japan and Europe," presented in FOOD 1932 and graduated from Waseda University in 1956. In 1961, he received CULTURE No. 6. The widely held presumption that the average his Ph.D in commerce from the same lifestyle of the Edo era was dominated by harsh taxation, university and began working at the National Diet Library. Mr. Watanabe oppression by the ruling shogunate, and a general lack of worked at the National Diet Library as freedom was destroyed. The article in FOOD CULTURE No. 6 manager of the department that referred to critiques made by Europeans visiting Japan during researches the law as it applies to agriculture. He then worked as the Edo era, who described the country at that time in exactly manager of the department that opposite terms. These Europeans seem to have been highly researches foreign affairs, and finally he devoted himself to research at the Library. Mr. Watanabe retired in 1991 impressed by the advanced culture and society they found in and is now head of a history laboratory researching various aspects of Japan, placing Japan on a level equal with Europe. In this cities, farms and villages. edition we will discuss the food culture of the Edo era, focusing Mr. Watanabe’s major works include Toshi to Noson no Aida—Toshikinko Nogyo Shiron, 1983, Ronsosha; Kikigaki •Tokyo no Shokuji, edited 1987, primarily on the city of Edo itself. The food culture of Edo has Nobunkyo; Kyodai Toshi Edo ga Washoku wo Tsukutta, 1988, Nobunkyo; expanded to become a food of the world. Nou no Aru Machizukuri, edited 1989, Gakuyoshobo; Tokyo ni Nochi ga Atte Naze Warui, collaboration 1991, Gakuyoshobo; Kindai Nihon Toshikinko Nogyoshi, 1991, Ronsosha. The Worldwide Japanese Cuisine Boom rice) and even unadon (grilled eel over rice) are common In the summer of 2000, I spent a week traveling from Japanese dishes spreading around the world. It has been said England's Southampton to New York by Queen ElizabethⅡ . that Japanese cuisine was not widely accepted worldwide Though restaurant seating at every meal was by reservation because it was primarily centered around raw fish. The only, passengers could choose a buffet-style lunch. At the recent boom in Japanese cuisine, however, has shown this lunch buffet every day, there was a space for various kinds of premise to be incorrect. Japanese cuisine has proven itself sushi including tuna, salmon, cucumber rolls and takuan throughout the world to be excellent with dishes suitable to pickle rolls. Of course pickled ginger, soy sauce and any palate. All of these dishes have a long history, dating chopsticks were available with the sushi. At first I thought from the Edo era, to endorse their quality and excellent flavor. that this was a service provided for the Japanese passengers, though I later learned that of the one thousand passengers on Starting From Zero board, not more than thirty were Japanese. The European The food culture of the Edo era basically started from zero. and American passengers were using chopsticks to eat their The capital city of Edo had a very humble beginning. Edo sushi as naturally as if they'd been eating with chopsticks all their became the capital city four hundred years ago in the year lives. Clearly sushi was provided in response to current trends in 1590 when the Tokugawa family moved there. At that time, Europe and the U.S., not as a special service for the Japanese Edo castle was small and desolate and it is said that there passengers. were fewer than one hundred households in the surrounding Sushi seems to have become a "fast food" of the world. It can area. Once Edo was established as the seat of the Tokugawa be found at Charles de Gaulle International Airport in Paris, at shogunate, it developed into a complete castle town with department stores in London, in Manhattan, and not just Europe nobility and their vassals from all over the country maintaining and the U.S., but all over Asia, Australia and even South residences. As to be expected, the establishment of this castle America. Sushi is town also demanded the services of various merchants, advancing as a symbol of craftsmen and laborers so that by the beginning of the 18th "high-tech Japan." Even century, the population of Edo had exceeded one million. the word "sushi" has As Edo became a melting pot of people from every region of become part of the the country, a new Edo food culture evolved. As people from international language. each region brought their own food culture to Edo, the Sushi is not the only exchange and fusion of all of the dishes and cooking styles representative of Japanese developed into an Edo food culture. While the population cuisine to gain renown grew rapidly at the beginning of the Edo era, the Kyoto and throughout the world. Osaka region was considered the source of the best products Beginning of course with and materials in the country. Local products and foods were soy sauce, sashimi, considered inferior. By the end of the Edo era, however, this tempura, tofu, yakitori, situation was reversed. Edo became the economic and gyudon (grilled beef over cultural seat of Japan. Edo's food culture had also been A sushi bar in London (Mappuru magazine, April, 2003 "London", Shobunsha) firmly established. By the turn of the 19th century, Edo 9 women. The enormous single male population of Edo consisted of vassals of the nobility and men who came to Edo in search of success as businessmen, shop owners or laborers. Therefore, restaurants and establishments where the men could meet women were vital to the society. Clearly the combination of various factors led to the development of Edo as a strong consumer society in regards to food. An Advanced Restaurant Culture Even from an international perspective, the restaurant culture of Edo was very advanced. The first restaurants were not seen in Europe until around the time of the French Revolution (1789), while Edo is said to have established its first restaurants Nihonbashi fish market (Edo Meisho Zue) more than one hundred years earlier in the year 1657. The first "restaurants" in Edo were very simple cuisine had reached full maturity and the dishes of Edo were establishments serving dishes no more complicated than fried considered the apex of Japan's food culture. On a trip to rice or greens. They gradually increased in luxuriousness, Osaka, a well-known playwright of the time wrote that of the however, until all sorts of foods were available, furniture and three inferior aspects of the Kyoto and Osaka region, food tableware increased until finally restaurants offering private was one of them. Similarly, an author of Noh plays from rooms and even gardens were born. Representatives of the Osaka ranked the cuisine of the three major cities of Japan nobility from around the country, famous authors and poets with Edo as the best, followed by Osaka and then Kyoto. It and well-known businessmen became regular customers at seems that even people from the traditional center of Japan such exclusive restaurants so that by the end of the considered Edo the source of the best food in the country. Tokugawa shogunate, the number and popularity of restaurants had increased exponentially. Edo—A City of Consumers Well-known authors of the time often wrote about the large A primary force behind the development and expansion of number of restaurants in Edo. One of these authors wrote Edo's food culture lies in the nature of the population of Edo. that of the three major cities in Japan, Edo had the largest Half of Edo's population of one million was made up of the number and most variation in restaurants. Further, he felt the samurai class. This entire class was supported by taxes number and variety of restaurants comparable to that found in collected from farmers and, therefore, a purely consumer the entire country of China. Restaurants of all sizes spread, class. As a rule, the samurai class was very extravagant in and the publication of restaurant guides, reviews and their spending and disdained detailed financial rankings were popular topics of conversation among the recordkeeping. The vanity and obstinacy of the samurai residents of Edo. In the sixth year of the Annei period (1777), seemed to spread to even the general population of Edo. Leading figures of the shogunate and various clans often treated the merchants and business people with whom they had direct business relations to extravagant meals and receptions. These businessmen, in return, indulged the craftsmen working for them. The people of Edo therefore, were proud of the fact that they could spend all of a single day's earnings with no concern for the following day. It seems true that living conditions in Edo meant that money could always be earned. Another factor behind the almost excessive use of money on food was the large number of fires in Edo. Often referred to as "the flower of Edo," great fires occurred with regularity every two or three years. In the two hundred seventy years of the Edo shogunate, there were approximately one hundred fires considered to be "great fires." With the destruction caused by fire always in mind, the carpenters, plasterers, craftsmen and laborers of Edo regarded expenditures on household furnishings as almost wasteful, and believed that as long as they had work, there was no need to save money.