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JAPAN / SCIENCE & HEALTH / LONGFORM
The quest to re-create what the Japanese ate 1,300 years ago
Understanding the palates of our ancestors teaches us about much more than menus
Tokyo Healthcare University professor Takayuki Mifune explains how he is trying to
re-create bonito broth from 1,300 years ago.
Tokyo Healthcare University professor Takayuki Mifune explains how he is trying to
re-create bonito broth from 1,300 years ago. | JOHAN BROOKS
BY ALEX K.T. MARTIN
STAFF WRITER
SHARE
Dec 4, 2023

The mouthwatering scent of boiled bonito broth fills the room — an aroma akin to
that which is released from dashi, the simple yet savory culinary cornerstone of
Japanese cuisine, and the soup stock responsible for bringing out the umami in our
food.
Except, this isn’t a washoku restaurant.

Instead of chefs and wait staff, there’s a group of furrow-browed researchers in

white lab coats standing around a steel pot sitting atop a stove. They’re timing
how long the liquid in the pan has been bubbling over the fire.

“OK, that’s enough. It’s been 20 minutes and 50 seconds — too long. Now it’s
glutinous,” says Minoru Morikawa, who is visiting Tokyo from the Nara National
Research Institute for Cultural Properties. “It was smooth until the very end when
it suddenly became sticky,” he says with a tinge of disappointment in his voice.
“Let’s repeat the experiment and stop the heat sooner,” says Kazuhide Kaneda, an
associate professor at Tokyo Healthcare University.

They are both members of a study group formed by Takayuki Mifune, a leading figure
in the rather niche field of reproducing — in minute detail — ancient Japanese
meals from 1,300 years ago based on surviving evidence.

"Katsuo irori" is a form of seasoning that has been boiled down from bonito broth.
It was used widely in the Nara Period (710-94). | JOHAN BROOKS
A professor at Tokyo Healthcare University, Mifune and his fellow researchers
gathered that day at his school’s laboratory to re-create katsuo irori — bonito
broth boiled down into a preservable seasoning that was used during the Nara Period
(710-94).

It’s a tedious process, involving countless trials as they try to remain as

faithful as possible to descriptions in old books and records, as well as using
tools that are as similar as possible to the earthenware and other utensils
excavated from archaeological sites.

But why invest so much time and effort in reviving long-forgotten dishes? For one,
it offers a window into how the Japanese lived and ate over a millennium ago — an
investigation into the origins of the Japanese diet nurtured by the archipelago’s
climate and abundant natural resources.

To understand Japanese food, Mifune says, is to understand the wisdom and history
of the island nation’s inhabitants.

“And when looking at specific ingredients, bonito holds a special place in washoku.
That’s why I’m interested in how the ancient Japanese consumed it.”

Culinary time travel

Mifune hasn’t always studied recipes from the past. In fact, the 64-year-old with a
quick smile and slightly disheveled mop of hair was once a high school teacher,
researching ancient Japanese history during his free time.

He got a gig teaching a weekly class at Meiji University, his alma mater. And when
he was in his mid-40s, he left his high school job, received his Ph.D. and started
working at Tokyo Healthcare University.

Takayuki Mifune holds up two bags of rice. The one on the right is steamed, while
the other is cooked.
Takayuki Mifune holds up two bags of rice. The one on the right is steamed, while
the other is cooked. | JOHAN BROOKS
“The university told me to host a seminar, and I wondered what kind of themes
students would be interested in,” Mifune says from his office. The nondescript room
is full of scents emanating from the various foodstuffs he preserves. In one corner
are laboratory incubators storing a container of boiled soybeans and a soy sauce
kit, an effort to re-create hishio, a type of fermented seasoning considered an
ancestor to miso and shoyu.

“Then, I thought of ancient food.”

One of the students who joined Mifune’s seminar in the first year happened to be
from Niigata Prefecture. Mifune knew of mokkan — narrow, long and thin pieces of
wood that were used as writing tablets in olden times — that mentioned ayu
sweetfish sent from Niigata to Heijo-kyo, the capital of Japan during the Nara
Period. Using that as a jumping off point, he and his students decided to figure
out how the fish was prepared.

“And that turned out to be really, really fun,” he says. “We ended up writing an
article about the subject and submitted it to an academic journal, and it got
accepted.”

Since then, Mifune and his students have experimented in reproducing and preparing
ancient tsukemono (pickles), sugar, vinegar, abalone and even wild boar meat.

A dining table is displayed in an image from an Edo Period edition of the

Ruijuzoyosho, a collection of visual records created in the 12th century that
depict the rituals of the Heian Period (794-1185).
A dining table is displayed in an image from an Edo Period edition of the
Ruijuzoyosho, a collection of visual records created in the 12th century that
depict the rituals of the Heian Period (794-1185). | INTEGRATED COLLECTIONS
DATABASE OF THE NATIONAL MUSEUMS, JAPAN
The fascination with what our ancestors used to eat is universal. In October,
archaeologists made headlines by uncovering a collection of wine jars dating back
5,000 years inside an Egyptian tomb. Similar discoveries of primitive foods and
drinks frequently make the news, offering us rare insights into the culinary lives
led by those who inhabited our planet thousands and tens of thousands of years ago.

In Japan, there’s a similar interest in the past. Take the indigenous hunter-
gatherers that roamed the nation during the Jomon Period, the earliest culture of
prehistoric Japan thought to have lasted roughly between 16,000 years and 3,000
years ago.

Other researchers have been trying to reproduce what the people of Jomon and the
subsequent Yayoi Period (generally considered to be from 300 B.C. to 300 A.D.) may
have eaten based on the era’s earthenware and tools, as well as animal bones, human
excrement and other artifacts.

The aroma of bonito broth in Takayuki Mifune's lab will make you think you've
arrived at a washoku restaurant.
The aroma of bonito broth in Takayuki Mifune's lab will make you think you've
arrived at a washoku restaurant. | JOHAN BROOKS
The problem with going so far back in time, however, is that there are no remaining
written records. Therefore, Mifune decided to limit his experimentation to the
Asuka Period in the late-sixth and seventh centuries, as well as the Nara and Heian
(794-1185) periods for which more written materials are available. And no one else
happened to be doing research in that area.

And while there are chefs who create dishes inspired from ancient Japanese culture,
these are typically arranged and catered toward modern palates and don’t
necessarily reflect the presumed reality of the times.

Mifune applies a method known as experimental archaeology, replicating how food was
prepared and eaten using historical documents and historically accurate
technologies. Besides the mokkan tablets that have been excavated, one source he
turns to frequently is the Engishiki, a collection of texts completed in 927 that
compiles the rules and procedures for implementing penal and administrative codes
and supplementary laws.

Comprising 50 scrolls, it’s considered an excellent reference concerning all

matters related to aristocratic government in the Heian Period due to its extremely
detailed provisions. It is in the Engishiki, for example, that bonito appears as a
tax item offered to the aristocracy, indicating its high value among the elite.

“In fact, bonito was considered the No. 1 fish when making offerings to the gods,”
Mifune says. “And the reason why we’re now focused on the Izu Peninsula is because
there have been pot-shaped earthenware discovered from the area that were likely
used to boil the fish.”

Origins of washoku
Celebrating the 10th anniversary of washoku’s inclusion in the UNESCO Intangible
Cultural Heritage list, an exhibition is currently being held at the National
Museum of Nature and Science inside Tokyo’s Ueno Park.

It essentially traces the evolution of washoku from the Jomon Period to the present
day, focusing on the main ingredients tying together the cuisine: water, rice,
vegetables, wild vegetables, mushrooms, seaweeds and seafood. It also chronicles
the foreign cultures that influenced the cuisine, including those from China and,
much later on, the West.

Bonito broth is boiled down as part of an experiment.

Bonito broth is boiled down as part of an experiment. | JOHAN BROOKS
The basis of washoku, according to the exhibition, began to take shape when wet
rice agriculture was introduced to Japan in the late Jomon Period via China’s
Yangtze River Delta or the Korean Peninsula and spread during the Yayoi Period. And
what would lead to a food culture heavily reliant on rice and fish could be traced
to 675 when Emperor Tenmu declared a prohibition on the consumption of meat.

As an alternate source of protein, fish and vegetables such as soybeans and rice
were prepared. And in order to compensate for the lack of meat, people began
devising new ways of making dashi and creating colorful hospitality dishes that
would eventually lead to the invention of traditional food styles including shōjin,
honzen and kaiseki.

The history of bonito as a food source, the subject Mifune and his colleagues are
currently investigating, also goes back thousands of years, with its bones
discovered in Jomon ruins. Old records such as the “Kojiki,” a chronicle of myths
and legends explaining the origins of Japan compiled in 712, indicate that the
fish, known as katsuo in Japanese, was originally called “kata-uo” (lit., “hard
fish”) in a nod to how its meat hardens after being dried.

In the eighth century, bonito products such as kata-uo (dried bonito), ni-kata-uo
(hard-dried boiled bonito) and the aforementioned katsuo-irori seasoning were
offered to the government as tribute items.

Packages of boiled and dried bonito that Takayuki Mifune and his team have created
in their experiments.
Packages of boiled and dried bonito that Takayuki Mifune and his team have created
in their experiments. | JOHAN BROOKS
Since the Japanese archipelago stretches more than 3,000 kilometers from the Sea of
Okhotsk in the north down to the East China Sea in the south, its flora and fauna,
as well as available catch, can vary regionally. When it came to bonito, offerings
were primarily made from areas on the Pacific coastline including Tosa (present-day
Kochi Prefecture), as well as Izu and Suruga in Shizuoka Prefecture.

The birth of katsuobushi, the omnipresent dried bonito flakes central to dashi made
by simmering, smoking and fermenting the fish, is thought to have taken place in
the Muromachi Period (1336-1573), flourishing in the Edo Period (1603-1868) when it
became a staple of washoku.

“Records show that hard-dried boiled bonito, considered the prototype of modern
dried bonito flakes, was being delivered from Suruga and Izu provinces as part of a
levy ordinance,” says Motoyuki Yamazaki, a senior researcher at Shizuoka
Prefecture’s Fisheries and Marine Technology Research Institute.
Professor Sachie Sainen watches over a pot of boiling broth.
Professor Sachie Sainen watches over a pot of boiling broth. | JOHAN BROOKS
Yamazaki is collaborating with Mifune’s study group to reproduce ancient dried
bonito products as a way to revitalize Shizuoka’s katsuobushi industry. By checking
their shelf life, umami ingredients and salt concentration, he aims to
scientifically examine how people ate the products at that time.

“That also means we can learn the history of umami,” he says, referring to the term
used to describe the savory, broth-like taste coined in 1908 by Japanese chemist
Kikunae Ikeda (1864-1936). Bonito flakes are high in inosinic acid, a component
that compounds nucleic acid and is said to provide the umami flavor.

“And dashi, made with bonito flakes, is considered the soul of washoku,” Yamazaki
says.

Rice and salt

While washoku is praised worldwide for its subtle, sophisticated taste and health
benefits — and while that’s true in its more refined manifestations — this hasn’t
always been the case.

When reviewing documents depicting what low-ranking officials tasked with

transcribing sutras at Heijo-kyo were eating, Mifune discovered that they consumed
copious amounts of rice and salt, so much that he speculates the overeating of
carbohydrates saw people suffer from diabetes.

“And Japan is surrounded by water, so naturally fish is abundant, and the only way
for ancient Japanese to preserve fish was to pickle it in salt,” Mifune says.

The foodstuffs in Takayuki Mifune's office are essential to knowing how Japanese
lived 1,300 years ago.
The foodstuffs in Takayuki Mifune's office are essential to knowing how Japanese
lived 1,300 years ago. | JOHAN BROOKS
That means many living in that era would have high blood pressure, causing serious
life-threatening conditions such as myocardial infarction, cerebral hemorrhage and
kidney disease.

“That would lead to a shorter life span,” he says.

The bonito products being re-created at Mifune’s laboratory also feature a high
salt concentration, although the debate among the researchers now is shifting
toward what was used to transport katsuo irori seasoning from Shizuoka to the
capital in Nara.

Morikawa, an expert on ancient earthenware, believes that a vertically long sueki

(sue stoneware pottery) unearthed in Shizuoka could have been used. For that theory
to be plausible, however, the seasoning would not have been any of the gooey
concoctions that have so far turned up in their experiments.

Kazuhide Kaneda checks the salt concentration of what is left after the broth has
been boiled down.
Kazuhide Kaneda checks the salt concentration of what is left after the broth has
been boiled down. | JOHAN BROOKS
“Back in January, we tried boiling down bonito, including its ara (head and bones),
but while that was rich in umami it created a glutinous substance akin to melted
chocolate due to the collagen,” he says, referring to the structural protein found
in the body’s various connective tissues.

“But this time we didn’t include ara, and that should prevent the liquid from
becoming too sticky,” he says. “That would also help prove my hypothesis that these
products were delivered from Shizuoka to the capital in ancient times using these
pots, giving us further insight on how the people of those times lived and ate.”

At the lab, another attempt is being made at boiling down bonito broth. Morikawa is
timing it while others watch intently.

“OK, stop! It’s 18 minutes and 30 seconds,” he says.

The researchers peer inside the pot, and there’s a yellowish, but still fluid,
substance accumulated toward the bottom of the pan. A hint of relief can be
detected in Morikawa’s voice, as Mifune looks on curiously.

“Interesting,” Mifune says. “We seem to have made some progress.”

Takayuki Mifune notes that the culinary habits of the past have lasting effects,
even drawing a link to the spiritual significance of the Izu Peninsula in the
present.
Takayuki Mifune notes that the culinary habits of the past have lasting effects,
even drawing a link to the spiritual significance of the Izu Peninsula in the
present. | JOHAN BROOKS
KEYWORDS
FOOD, FISH, DIETS, JAPANESE CUISINE, NARA PERIOD, HEALTH
Tokyo Healthcare University professor Takayuki Mifune explains how he is trying to
re-create bonito broth from 1,300 years ago. | JOHAN BROOKS
"Katsuo irori" is a form of seasoning that has been boiled down from bonito broth.
It was used widely in the Nara Period (710-94). | JOHAN BROOKS
Takayuki Mifune holds up two bags of rice. The one on the right is steamed, while
the other is cooked. | JOHAN BROOKS
A dining table is displayed in an image from an Edo Period edition of the
Ruijuzoyosho, a collection of visual records created in the 12th century that
depict the rituals of the Heian Period (794-1185). | INTEGRATED COLLECTIONS
DATABASE OF THE NATIONAL MUSEUMS, JAPAN
The aroma of bonito broth in Takayuki Mifune's lab will make you think you've
arrived at a washoku restaurant. | JOHAN BROOKS
Bonito broth is boiled down as part of an experiment. | JOHAN BROOKS
Packages of boiled and dried bonito that Takayuki Mifune and his team have created
in their experiments. | JOHAN BROOKS
Professor Sachie Sainen watches over a pot of boiling broth. | JOHAN BROOKS
The foodstuffs in Takayuki Mifune's office are essential to knowing how Japanese
lived 1,300 years ago. | JOHAN BROOKS
Kazuhide Kaneda checks the salt concentration of what is left after the broth has
been boiled down. | JOHAN BROOKS
Takayuki Mifune notes that the culinary habits of the past have lasting effects,
even drawing a link to the spiritual significance of the Izu Peninsula in the
present. | JOHAN BROOKS
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Tokyo Healthcare University professor Takayuki Mifune explains how he is trying to
re-create bonito broth from 1,300 years ago.
The quest to re-create what the Japanese ate 1,300 years ago
BY ALEX K.T. MARTIN
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