Japan Foodways

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Japan Foodways, Past and Present


304 pages

The first English-language compilation of research
on Japanese cooking and food culture

Spanning nearly six hundred years of Japanese food culture, Japanese Foodways, Past and Present considers the production, consumption, and circulation of Japanese foods from the mid-fifteenth century to the present day in contexts that are political, economic, cultural, social, and religious. Diverse contributors--including anthropologists, historians, sociologists, a tea master, and a chef--address a range of issues such as medieval banquet cuisine, the tea ceremony, table manners, cookbooks in modern times, food during the U.S. occupation period, eating and dining out during wartimes, the role of heirloom vegetables in the revitalization of rural areas, children's lunches, and the gentrification of blue-collar foods.

Framed by two reoccurring themes--
food in relation to place and
food in relation to status --
the collection considers the complicated relationships between the globalization of foodways and the integrity of national identity through eating habits. Focusing on the consumption of Western foods, heirloom foods, once-taboo foods, and contemporary Japanese cuisines, Japanese Foodways, Past and Present shows how Japanese concerns for and consumption of food have relevance and resonance with other foodways around the world.


Contributors are Stephanie Assmann, Gary Soka Cadwallader, Katarzyna Cwiertka, Satomi Fukutomi, Shoko Higashiyotsuyanagi, Joseph R. Justice, Michael Kinski, Barak Kushner, Bridget Love, Joji Nozawa, Tomoko Onabe, Eric C. Rath, Akira Shimizu, George Solt, David E. Wells, and Miho Yasuhara.

"A pathbreaking volume on Japanese culinary history with great depth and scope."
--Merry Isaacs White, author of Perfectly Japanese: Making Families in an Era of Upheaval

"Required reading for anyone interested in Japanese history, food, and foodways. I couldn't put this book down!"
--Samuel Hideo Yamashita, author of Leaves from an Autumn of Emergencies: Selections from the Wartime Diaries of Ordinary Japanese


Eric C. Rath
is an associate professor of history at the University of Kansas and the author of The Ethos of Noh: Actors and Their Art.
Stephanie Assmann
is a lecturer at Tohoku University, Sendai, Japan, and the author of Value Change and Social Stratification in Japan: Aspects of Women's Consumer Behaviour.

source : www.press.uillinois.edu



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Food and Fantasy in Early Modern Japan



Eric C. Rath

December 2010
ISBN: 9780520262270

How did one dine with a shogun?
Or make solid gold soup, sculpt with a fish, or turn seaweed into a symbol of happiness? In this fresh look at Japanese culinary history, Eric C. Rath delves into the writings of medieval and early modern Japanese chefs to answer these and other provocative questions, and to trace the development of Japanese cuisine from 1400 to 1868. Rath shows how medieval “fantasy food” rituals—where food was revered as symbol rather than consumed—were continued by early modern writers. The book offers the first extensive introduction to Japanese cookbooks, recipe collections, and gastronomic writings of the period and traces the origins of dishes like tempura, sushi, and sashimi while documenting Japanese cooking styles and dining customs.

source : www.ucpress.edu



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