THE HISTORY AND CULTURE OF JAPANESE FOOD Despite the populatity of Japanese food in the West today, remarlably litle known abou is history. This innovative work isthe fist of is kind, ie 4 detailed wody of the food and dietary practices ofthe Jpaneie from the Palaealithic ea, before rice was Cultvated, through the period when the distinctive Japanese Conary tadtion reached culmination (between 1680 and 1860), snd on tothe present day. This evotion i taced though presenting typist dishes ofall penods, condiment, beverages, Ingredients, tethods of preparation, etiquette, the aesthetics of presentation, eating implements ad cooking wens inthe socal polite, and economic contests of their consumption and we. Topics include the spread of voy sce, the design of Japanese food, intoducing the reader to home cookery and regional school of kine dat are virally unknown outside Japan. It tikes» unique contribution to the way of Jspanese culture, snd sf ealinary history 8 whole Dr. Naotnici Ishige has writen prolifically regarding the Japanese dit. He hat authored 12 Books, and co-authored or feted an addkional 60 works. Hie i currently Director General ithe National Muteums of Ethnology, OsaMap of Japan THE HISTORY AND CULTURE OF JAPANESE FOOD NROMICHIISHIGE @ KEGAN PAUL London » New York + Bahrainbi ay UK: 0. Bon 35h Landon WENH38W, England ‘ra oa SDSS Fax 03) 76 rm boaky@iepupa com Inurnetse Usa: 6 Wen GS Ne frk, 8 10023 “a sh Fal nae ‘BAHRAIN: bine Oana Way Bogner Regs ‘ey (any T9130) O20 ‘rar ginassoa Fox gy) 498 Tie hap tend © Nomi ig, 2101 ie Gi Bab Loto gn are, No ky id rota nan, sw kaon ohare ene ang poping ecco. a on age eva "rem ites perc nig frome pba Isp: or10s46574 en iar Cig erat Da ‘eit wd ie ane as pat Feed Foose lp oo Da Jen Hie ‘ken Sas Casey pane Sloan” Seal eed emtas, setivos Library of Congres Cataloging Pobleaton Data notes tt PREFACE, Every kind of food caries social, historical and cultural information, [A human meal consists not only of the absorption of mater as means of supplying nutrition, bu also the absorption of information that is asocated with the food. Concerning Japanese food there is 3 reat dea of information that i virally unknown ousside Japan, Sd that x why T have written this book for publication in Engish ‘With the proifration of Japanese restaurants in cities sound the world since the lite 1970s, € bas become rather eay to enjoy Japanese euiine without going to Japan. AS the cuisine has pained popularity, many books about ic hive been writen and published in Yatious languages, However, the grea majority of them ace simply cookbooks. There has been no book designed to inform a non Japanete audience about Japanese dietary history and how the Culture of Japan projected through is food. This book is meant to fill chat vacuum, ‘As 2 culeural anthropologist, I have spent the past 20 years ‘conducting Held work on the food and diet of many peoples, manly in Asi. On the basis of my findings, 1 present inthis book various comparisons between the distay cultures of Japan and other parts of ‘Asia, expecially China and Korea, which ae the areas chat historically have had the strongest influence on Japan. Past One surveys the histony of Japanese Food and dic, from the Stone Age to the present. Part Two describes the comtemporary ‘ietary culture of Japan, ftom table manners to cookery to typical foods. Readers who are primarily interested in the Japanese diet of orday may wish to wart with Pare Two. ‘Several people and organizations have helped me prepare this book for publication, Tam parculaly indebted to Stephen Suloway and Kyoto Tushintha for the warslton and editing of my Japanese ‘manuscript, t0 the Ajinomoto Foundation for Dietary Culture ‘which provided financial support for that work, and co my long time fiiend Prof. Kenneth Ruddle for his comments on che smanuscripe, Naomichi ige [National Museum of Ethnology, Osaka January 2000‘Siberia (Rossa) oxime) cle Ose Map of Bast Asia CONTENTS Introduction ~ The Historical Framework PART ONE ‘THE DIETARY HISTORY OF JAPAN Chapter 1 ‘The Prekistorie Era 1A The Paleotthie Age 12 The Advent of Earthenware 13 Jémon Society and Dietary Culture Establishment of a Rice-Growing Si Chapter 2 24 A.Crop Held in Special Regard 22 Dissemination snd Development of Rice 23 Rice Cooking 24 Sake Brewing 25, Fermented Fish and Favourings Chapter3. The Formative Period of Japanese Dietary Cale 3A Historical Seting 32 ‘The Taboo on Meat Eating 33. The Lack of Dairy Industry 314 Annual Observances and Rites of Pasage 355. Place Settings and Table Setings 36 Cooking and Banquet Srles 37 The Role ofthe Monasteries 38 The Popubaizaion of Noodles 6 3 58 2 a a BChapter 4 The Age of Change 4 Hinorial Setting $2. The Diffasion of Tea 43. The Impact ofthe 'Souchern Barbarians! 44, Formation of a New Style 43. Change inthe Frequency of Meals ChapterS ‘The Maturing of Traditional Japanese Cuisine 5:1 Histoeal Sewing 5.2 City and Counery 5.3 The Spread of Soy Sauce 54 The Emergence of the Restaurant 5.5 Snack Shops 5. Books on Cooking and Resauranss 57 The Ainu 58 The Ryukyu Islanders Chapter 6 Changes in the Modern Age 6.1 Historical Seting 6.2 The Resumption of Meat Eating 63 Mill-and Dairy Products 644 Entry of Foreign Foods 65 Zenith and Nadir 66 New Meal Patterns 67 Integration of Foreign Foods ~ A Model 81 86 a1 36 101 10s 105 109 113 17 12 12 128 133 at 11 146, 153 155 158 102 167 PART TWO. ‘THE DIETARY CULTURE OF THE JAPANESE Chapter 7 At the Table 71 Gohan - Framework ofthe Meal 22 The Rise ofthe Table 73. The Tabletop 2 Landscape 74 Chopsticks and Table Manners 75 Buiquete = As You Like It Chapter 8 In the Kitchen 8.1 The Secubiization of Fire and Water 82 From Wood Fie to Electric Rice Cooker 83 The Knife A Sword forthe Kitchen 84 Resaurans ~The Public Kitchen Chapter 9. On the Menu: 9.1 Soup and Unant Favouring 9.2 Sashimi ~ Cuisine That Isn't Cooked 9.3 Sushi ~ From Preserved Food to Fast Food 94 Sukiyaki and Nabemono 9.5 Toland Naté ~ Meat for Vegetarians 9.6 Vegeurian Temple Food 97 Tempura and OL 918 Noodles and Regional Tastes 9.9 Pickled and Preserved Seafood 9.10 Mochi, Confectionery and Tea 9.11 The Dynamics of Ske and Tea References 175 Ws 178 187 189 199 1 202 206 as 219 219 2a 27 231 236 240 Daa 24s 253 237 262 267ILLUSTRATIONS Table Figure | Figure? Figure 3 Figure § Figures Figure 6 Figure 7 Figure 8 Figure 9 Figure 10 igure 11 Figure 12 Figure 13, Figure 14 Figure 15 Figure 16 Figure 17 Figure 18 Figure 19 Figure 20 igure 21 ‘Map of Japan Map of Eas Asia Penods of Japanese Dietary Culture Sphieee of fermented fish cuisine Sources of sal in the diets of Japan and the UK Sphere of naesud in the nineteenth censury ‘Areas where milking was common in the Bticeath century ‘An upper-class Eiily meal inthe Edo period ‘Traditional production of sSmen noodles A meal ofthe Heian period ‘A fishionable diner ofthe early Meiji pesiod ‘Recent trends in food intake ofthe Japanese Correlation of main and side dishes Courses ofthe typical Japanese meal todsy Sidedishes with rce and with se Zen + meal stands and meal trays of che Edo etiod [A bud st fora faily meal Diffusion ofthe high family meal able “The correcr way co use chopsticks ‘The rie pot and stove of a premodern kiechen Slicing a fishin che sixteenth century ‘Common types of heh and their cating edges ‘A serving vese and cup forsake CColtursl polarities of ake and tes (refice) (Prefice] [Preface] (23) (23) (23) 3) Be Ba) Ia} (o2} loo (67) pa) ray (72) (2) (73) (72) (82) [3] 83] fo. fay INTRODUCTION THE HISTORICAL FRAMEWORK “The history of Japan is vsually divided into ages and petiods corresponding to changes in government. The ancient age, marked bythe ental authority ofthe imperial cour and is bureaucracy, fave vray in the twellh century fo the medieval age of warrior fbvcrnmens. The early modern age beam in the stent cerry ch euniicaion and the emergence of the Taka sboguate Ind the modetn age date from the Mei Restoration of 1868 Compared wo changes fr politcal and economie nem ihre nnd th sl ree eon io ip {deology and technology, changes in lee normally exhibic muc geile pater of advance. Historians tend to ake changes of political system as the dividing points for historical eras, yet a change government does noc lead to any rapid change in peoples eating thio. New foodtts or manner of eting wil noe sre through 2 ation wthowt a preparatory period forthe adjustment of systems production and supply. Moreover, the food eats and preferences thar formed ding eto nd yout ad ug Sow ss of change, trtsforming gradually as they ate wansmites Rom generation to generation, Therefore, dvsins inthe history of dietary if dif from the pesiods ino which historical event are erly sie FemeelR ther than the peridization wed by hori, this book adops an oignal system conceived by the author 25 practical 1INTRODUCTION smework for ivexigating che deary ivory ofthe Japanese ee mewn invenigaing te ditary hoy of he opens in paacolichic and neolithic times, the society of the Japanese sans was based on hunting and gathering an the dee, ented rly fact thr nay and iy and wd fame. The cultivation of rice and other crops began and gradual Spread through the island) between about 400 Bc and CE 250, ‘which is het led the Bay Agncultre Pesod. “The long interval between the sixth and fienth centuries, suetching across most of the ancient and mesieval age, Viewed 25 the Formative Period of the dstry culture of japan. Variows Influences which were sbiotbed fiom the Asan continent during the fist part ofthe period were gradually adapted and aximulted {nto a sable indigenous cutsine “The period spanning the sicenth and che int half ofthe seventeenth centariet (which horas would erm the dove af the tnedieval and beginning ofthe early modern ages) surveyed a2 Separte ers in Chapter 8, The Age of Change. Tht 8 the sme ‘when many specs of dcr cate were aitered as ares of external influences introduced through trade with China and ‘wexem Europe. It coreponds tothe socal changes accompanying the eallapie ofthe medival order and reorganieation of the feudal stem ‘Thereafter, the distinctive Japanese culinary tradition that has ‘continued to the present day eached its culmination between sbout 1640 and 1860, the period of national isolation when foreign influence was extremely limited. This era is dealt with in the ‘Chapter 5, The Maturing of Traditional Japanese Cuisine. Finally, since the reopening of the country in the mid nineteenth century, Japanese society has progressively modernized in line with the norms of Westen civilization, a process that iitisted treat changes in food culture which continue today I is described. in Chapter 6, Changes ofthe Modern Age. art Two presents the food culture that is found today in Japan. Historical background is included, but the focus is on specific aspects of the dining experience. Bor appt ‘THE HISTORY AND CULTURE OF JAPANESE FOOD JAPANESE PRONUNCIATION AND SPELLING ‘The vowel sounds of romanized Japanese are: 4 asin father, ¢ a in bed, like dhe ¢ in equal, oa in note, and w like the eo in boot ‘When vowels occur next to each other, each ie pronounced with no break becween the sounds. A macron above a vowel, 1, ‘indicates thatthe basic sound i elongated, (Macrons are not used {or proper names in this book.) ‘A consonant always marks the art ofa new syllable. There i never 3 consonant sound at the end of a syllable, although some fyllables end with a written n, which indicates thatthe preceding ‘Vowel nasslized. Consonants are otherwise pronounced essentially the same asin English. Each syllable of a word i given equal ses. Japanese perional names are weitten in the traditional ‘manner, las name firstINTRODUCTION Periods of Japanese Dieary Culture berry reno sarronset rsc0 | Part ONE =o sce Hunting eworce Re ; sp ygtttni te ttt nae | eas a eo cwogn- ; . . = soa The Dietary History of Japan = “Kota B= FIT © "y ry Jap New jio- 796 Formative | Hein Baz ise $00 1800 Period Kamakura 1192 1396 NitSouther Cours 1336— 1352 Medial Marocach 1592 1868 Age Monoyama 1568 1600 aly Moder Ete tao 868 Age Maturing of sos Tradioea! Mei igs i912 Mode Tihs Shiu pia 99 Age os Pesto ones ttCHAPTER 1 THE PREHISTORIC ERA 1.4 The Paleolithic Age “The Japanese archipelago forms an are strewhing fiom north 0 south near the northess edge of the Asian continent. The bulk of the land area is made up by the four large ilands of Hokkaido, Honshu, Shikoku and Kywshu, The country suetches some 3,500 kilomesres from the northern tip of Hokkaido near the Sakhalin peninsula of Rusia, to the southernmost island in the Okinawa group near Taiwan, A narrow strait separates the islands of ‘Taushima, of the northwest coast of Kyushu, ffom the Korean Peninsula’ ‘During the glacial epoch, when the land surface was mostly frozen and the sea level receded, the archipelago was 2 single landform linked to the continent. Land bridges connected present day Hokkaido to Siberia and Kyushu to Korea, and what is now the Japan Sea hy entirely inland. During that era, animals and humans ‘could migrate freely fom the main pare ofthe continent. ‘Human habitation of che Japanese land area is known to dae buck a fir 35 600,000 years. Some 3,000 palaeolithe sites have been discovered, most of them from 30,000 co 10,000 years old, cased ar late paacolithic, The remains unearthed fiom those sites are Timited 10 scant amounts of stone tools and stone shards from tooliaking Land animale no doube made up 3 lige part ofthe diet ‘of palacolithic poople, a the subarctic climate made edible plants scatoe and fishing techniques had not developed. Tei believed that‘THE PREHISTORIC ERA the people ofthe time erected sell, cemporary shelters and lived in nomadic fishion, pethaps carrying light tents at they roamed over broad areas, hunting game or eatching fish which ean urea in [As virally no remains of animal or vegetable foods hhave been discovered with the stane cool finds, we know very litle about what palazolithic people ate or how they prepared their food Analysis of organic matter adhering to 2 140,000-year-old stone tool discovered recently in Miyazaki Prefecture established that itis Consistent wich the fey acid composition ofthe Naumann elephant, indicating that the implement was used to dismember such a0 animal (Nakano 1989:120-121]. In future, similar typological analyses of fatty acid traces, along with reconstruction of the palaeo- environment, may well yield an inreasing amount of materials that ‘would inform us about the human diet in palsolithe times, Groups of fame-scorched natural stones, about the size of fis or slightly smaller, have been unearthed at palacoithic sites in the Kanto region. They ate believed to have been used for cooking, 4 there war organie matter of animal origin adhering t some of those scorched somes, We know of the use of earthen ovens on Pacific islands for cooking meat and fish and cro, yams or bread, by placing the food on rocks and covering ie with banana leaves and soil: This method was ao utilized in palaeolithic Europe. ‘Scorched racks from the weolithie Jémon) period have ako been found. Stones remained in occasional use for cooking even after che spread of earthenware and pans, and some techniques have been passed down to che present. For example, fisherflk on the fmnall ishnd of Awashima in the Japan Sea use stones to prepare lunch along the shore. Freshly caughe small fish are roasted over an ‘open fre and then placed in a cylindrical bent (portable meal box. tmade of lacquered tree bark (clled tappa). Water is poured ovee the fish, and ic is momentarily boiled by adding a stone heared inthe ‘open fire. Miso is then dissolved in the fish broth to complete a version ofthe staple miso soup without using a pot. ‘Around 8000RCE, or approximately 400 human generations ‘ago, the inhabitants of the archipelago experienced a major climatic ‘hifi. With the change from the cold, dry climate of the glacial ‘epoch to the warm, humid climace ofthe later ie age, the conifer ‘THE HISTORY AND CULTURE OF JAPANESE FOOD forests and steppe lands which had covered all Japan were restricted to northern and upland regions. In their place, luxuriant temperate forest began to cover the lowlands ofthe archipelago. Asa result, lange hesbivores such atthe mammoth, reindeer, Bion and hose dsappesred, and the range of cold-water fishes such as trout and Salmon was limited to the north, The land bridges disappeared, leaving Japan separated from the Asian continent by the Japan Sea, and broken into diferent islands, Receiving warm ocean currents fiom the south and cold currents fom the north along both the Pacific Ocean and Japan Sea coasts, the Japanese archipelago lies i fone ofthe fines ishing tepions ofthe world ‘These climatic changes naturally changed the way people lived. Remains from about SOOORCE of shell mounds, graves, and home sites with holes for stout pillars indicate the stare ofthe shit fiom a nomadic lifestyle to domiciled seulement. Indeed 2 uniform pattern of setament began sbout the same time throughout the Idle latitudes of the planer in areas where temperate forexs were advancing, including Europe, West Asa, China and Noxth America 25 well as Japan. ‘The economic basis of domicilation in Japan consisted mainly in the gathering of carbohydrate-rich nuts growing in temperate forest zones, including acorns, walnuts and chestnuts. Hiuncing of deer and boar wat ao imporeant. Moreover, a the sea level rose and the cosstines approached the forests, ie became porsble to select home sts that would allow regular harvesting of huts and gume from the forest as well as fish and shellfish fiom the 1.2 The Advent of Earthenware Archacologists regard the appearance of earthenware as the ‘Gemareation between palacolhic and neolithic Japan. Due to the presence at most neolithic sites of earthenware displaying surface {ccorations shat were imptesed with twisted cord, the neolithic era fof Japan i referred to a8 the jSnon (cord-marked) period. JOmon fatthenwate isthe oldest that has been discovered anywhere in the world, having been traced by carbon dating to as eatly asTHE PREHISTORIC ERA 14,S000cE. Scholas are divided on the question of whether such sae of pay wr tr vp xy japan, or was tsnited om aa ancient a Yor wnvedicoven tue in Sted oe ‘The we of earthenware allows food tobe caked by boli Since soe ofthe eats mon period veel beat marks fom Ie application of re, the earhervare pos were probably used more 3 cooking wens than a storage veel. Througn boing, food ean be soiened for esting, pokows can be removed, and atngent OF ter tastes ean be altered. Boling abo makes even the Gnest shelifsh or seeds edible, Furthermore, trough retention of the ution and favour diotved in broth, i llows new developmen in cooking vhich were not pousble with the clot tchmigue of thing in earthen ovens, ‘The ute of earthenware led to more active uization of vegetable ood reources The popultion ofthe Japanese lands is suited to hive grown (rom about 20,000 3 the wart of the ‘Fbion period to 360,000 atthe end of the middle Jomon period ia ‘20008 [Koyama 1988:199. Tallow such an Increase, new food Tevources must have been developed. The most common staple {bods in Jomnonttnes wore vaio typeof coms, Rone chem, Jnpanesechexnaty and walls. Mow scone conan anain which mae them too biter fo be eaten aw. ‘The bitterness can be removed from some types by pulverizing and soaking them in trace, pethape in a fine-meibedbalkt, wheres ethers most be boiled Before they ae soaked. te was through such procedures cat corm would initally have Become pat ofthe dit. ‘Although aeormt have beea found at some of the eal: Jémmon site, chess and walt which eau be eaten ra. Predominate, At ste ftom the mide Jémon period, when the Population ha incresed, there ae sharply ger amounts of high (Sue aca in oge teens wile tees ocqataion femove hanes These were typically tored in pts beside the homes, Hone chestnuts, which conan non-water-olile saponin zed alin, must be neuaized with ala o make chem edible, We Suppose chat the biternes wat femoved by boing chem together ‘wih susan quaniae of as, 3 technique tht survive ody ab ‘THE HISTORY AND CULTURE OF JAPANESE FOOD folk custom in certain areas of Japan. Homes with ovens fed with special apparatus for collecting ash have been found at various sits. ‘The yields ffom these nuts were extremely high. Koyama Shiizd has caleulated that for one kind of acom, the yield ftom 100 ha would be 65 kilograms. In toms of food eneepy available from a Sandard plot of land, that amounts to one-eighth the mutsitonal ‘value of paddy rice he most productive agricultural crop, and 500 times that of the wild boar, which was then the most commonly Inuneed animal, Whereas the population merely subsisted during palseolithic and early JSmon times by relying on the catch from Frunting, ie mulkiplied with the subsequent shift coward vegetable resources, manly nus T'was during the era wher auts came to be eaten in great quantity hat Jomion pottery evolved considerably and began to be fade in many sizes and shapes. This differentiation no doube Signifies the diversification of cooking and eating methods. {cis blileved that shallow bowls were used for kneading starches made fom nuts and wild rhizomes, while decorated veils were vied for Serving food. Discoveries have included pieces of sarch which are thought to have been kneaded into a cookie-like shape and buried jn oven ashes for baking. Another probable cooking: method was boiling round dumplings of starch in pots. There may well have ‘been one-pot meals of sch starches boiled together with mea, shellfish oF wld planes, ei abo likely chat mixtures of starch an ‘Water were boiled in pot and eaten in paste form, ‘Shell middens are a common feature of Jomon sites, indicating that marine resources were a major part of the dict. “Although coastal shes were often eaten, the lager role was played ‘by shelish, which were easily gathered and were steadily and amply svalble- Analyst ofthe accumulation patterns of these refuse heaps thous that people frequently collected and discarded shells in large ‘guantiies, exceeding the amount that could be eaten at one time ‘White ic isa chore co pry open 2 living mols, i is easy to extract, the meat afer boiling, Presumably durin the gathering season lange mounts of shelfsh were boiled en masse, andthe cooked meat was tied and later used for trading with communities located ir inland, ‘The broth obtained from such a procedure would naturally have been enjoyed a soup. "1‘THE PREHISTORIC ERA Sites from the late Jémon period 2000-400 sce) have yieled earthenware ves that wore wed exclavely fr making Zac by boing down sea water. Sat may ao have besn produced route a Koon ve ben aed pana tecsnly, whereby sa water i epenedly poured over scaeed and Craporsc, thes the seawecd » wad wi sk water ad tat ae ch water oiled down. Poetry fam the eighth cenary CE meas of buming sesweed to make sl. The proces feted fo bkely favolved pouring ea water over seaweed and drying i many times, chen burning it to obain sntre of at and ak Although tee is no achacolgical evidence fori this method may have Been ised tn Jamon times a wel eis abo likly than coat areas sa water twas aded for favour when boling food. As rock sts no made Japan and there ae nos lskes ot sal springy, inland areas alway ‘ction seme fom seawater. Thus ince ancient ser sl at Deena val a prec ding cody sides al apace peper an Zethoxy tam pps) tas ao boon founds mon ses and wis prsabl ad Setsning mich st fodhy. Th spice, made fom the eaves ad ns of re that originated a Jpn, idly aed oa any a0 Japanese den 1.3. Jomon Society and Dietary Culture ‘The neolithic revolution that began in Mesopotamia was named for the advent of sone tools made by grinding rsther than chipping, nd yet it involved much more than technological reform in the Sphere of coolmaking. It also signifies the shifts in society chat, accompanied changes in food production, that is, the change from hunter-gatherer society to agricultural and pastoral society. In Japan, neolithic or Jomon sociery had a somewhat diferent character chan ‘he contemporary societies that evolved in the heartland of the Eurasian continent. While ie possessed cechnological elements such as polished scone toolmaking and earchenvwate pottery which were common to neolithic peoples elsewisere in the world, Jomon society did not practise. either intensive land cultivation or the ‘THE HISTORY AND CULTURE OF JAPANESE FOOD, domestication and breeding of livestock. It was a neolithic society of hunter-gatherer "Fhough Jomon society was not agricultural ie was not cmirely without cultivated crops. Excavations have established the Sse by the thd millensivm BCE of grains including buckwheat, wheat and millet (awe Setar aia), as well asthe ry beat (Vigna adit), perilla mine (oma, P. free), and gourds used both as containers snd food. The grains would later be systematically clivated, initially in slath-and-burn fthion. Some scholars have Sietpreted the escovery of grain at Jdmon sites to mean chat sash= nd-burn agriculture was practised in Jomon times, However, 2s ‘oth che quantities of gran and the number ofsves where it has been discovered are very small, i¢ is unreasonable to view crop production as part of the economic foundation of Jomon society There is 2 considerable ikelinood that the grains found at Jomon sity were eansmitted from the area spanning the Korean Peninsula nud nearby Siberian coast, We must presume either chat atemprs at Culvating the tansmised grains proved unsuceessfal owing co the insuficient technological knowledge of the time and were sbandoned: or that gain culivation was praised in JOmon times fring extremely non-incensive techniques, on a scale that was minute by comparison to the gathering of wild plant, and che Cultivated lands were quite localized. The non-grain plants were probubly culivated in kitchen gardens next to the homes, and wed In sll quanies to ad variety to meas, rather chan as main foods "The gourds, of which only a fee relics have been found, are likely to have served mainly 4s containers, More than a thousend Jomon Ses have been surveyed 0 date and the research resus, caken Comprehensvely, make clear that JOmon society was one of henter= pathoien, “The sole domesticated animal ofthe Jomon era wat the dog. {Jémon culture was from the beginning mavked by use of the bow land arrow and the rising of dogs. Deer and wild boar were the Inain hunting prey, The skeletal remains of some 70 types of mammals have been found at JOmon sites, but at most sites more than 90 per cent of the bones are from deer and wild boat. They twere chased down with the aid of hunting dogs, which have Jnrvived in continuous lines for at Teast 10,000 yeats until today.‘THE PREHISTORIC ERA ‘That hunters created their dogs as precious companions is suggested by the dcovery of many dog bural sites ee ts sad chat many Japanese can name more than twenty kinds of edible fishes, while a European of American can rately fame mote than ten. Statistically, the Japanese today eat more fh than any other nation, A Buddhisin-related boo on eating the flesh ‘of mammals (fee Chapter 3) made fish che predominant animal foodsuff for several centuries, and this undoubtedly played roe in ‘making Japan into the nation of fish lovers it i today. Yet the custom of eating much fish dates frm Jémon times ‘The convoluted shapes of the Japanese islands make for extraordinarily long coastnes. In addition, curing the fifth and sath millennia BCE che sea level was some five metres higher than itis today, submerging many of coday's plains and Bringing the sea in convoluted patterns up to the foot of coday’s tablelands, creating ideal conditions for ishing. Moreover, che seas around Japan, where the warm Japan currene from the south and the cold Karle current fiom the forth come together, contain more species of fish than all bua very few area of the world Bone fahing hooks, harpoons made from deer bones of antlers, and sinkers for fishing nets have been discovered in Jamon shell mounds, and cerainly taps for catching various types of fish existed, although no aces femain as they were made fom ‘egeable materials. The bones of 71 species of fish have been found in Jamon shell mounds, Open-sea fakery developed in the Tohoku region, where dugout eanoes were ridden into the offing to harpoon bluefin runa and bonic, and Sshing was done with lage hooks eis likely ha che stimulus for che development ofa fishing industry for large migratory fishes was chat they "were easy tO preserve and 50 were valied as trade commodities. Tuna and bonito meat keep well ater being boiled and then seamed and dried in the ‘They are kept today in that form, called amar’ ot cypically eaten after being boiled with vegetables. Katsue-bsh, bonito hats smoked ater boiling, cums as hard as wood and keeps for years. Today ketsuo-ushi i commonly used to make soup stock (dash), by placing shavings in boiling water to extract the esence (Gee Section 9.1), In ancient times, apart from being used for stock, easwo-bushi was jerked for gnawing, 4 ‘THE HISTORY AND CULTURE OF JAPANESE FOOD ‘Among many peoples, ishing in the open sexi viewed as men's work, while Women father shellfiah slong the coast. The ‘She was probably eae fr Joon people Some 60 per ent of he Enown jomon shell mound ae concestted n the Keno "op00, ‘which aah ime had very high numberof mtu inlew and was Inrrounded by extensive shoal, The te ebbed 2 consderble Sisunce each day allowing ey picking of shells, Jomon shel tmounds have yeded 354 species large proportion of which were Clams (Mavi ln, Raspes pilpinanum, Maca vee) Invesigation of the pattems of accumulation offen reveal that Cntemely large quanites of shell were dared a one ene presumably afr the meat was bole ed exacted for dying a Preservation. The discovery a shel mounds of obsidian tools frouced in mountain aes diane 3 10D fmt ages that fet sell wer ened inland fread People who subakt on diets compote largely of game and fh are known in gener o hve low level of tooth decay, ah yet inspection of the teeth of the Jomon people hat revealed 3 ily igh netdenceof decay. That an indcaron of the Inrge quanties ofcarbohydrates they ingested, notably from acorns, 5 described sbove “The lifestyle a the beginning of the JBmon pesiod, asin palaoltie times, seems to have been tht of the band or horde, Consisting of several faslies living a social unit without fixed Sbode and roaming over specific terry according to sesonal hanger in the food supply. ised hamlets were formed the lifestyle shifted to reliance on the quhering of acorns a the predominant foods: During the middle Jomon period, te Kanto fegion reached a populition of thee penons per square Kilometre, fn extordnary level ors huntergaterer svi, and was ded Sth hanes of 20 to 100 pens. Earthenware paying the same Daten of decoration has beer un at tes lente Seon 3 wide Tenge. As wit eter peoples of the worl, we may nuppore that mg Jomon people the making of potey wat womens work ‘The suige in which agven syle of powery occurs my be taken enoing» sng cll we an ao anata in which mia {ebton could be eaabished anong dhe inbitants, Te may fer tesupposed tha in soch acu ares the same dialect Would be 5