Ancient and Medieval Food Culture of Japan

Abstract

Japanese cuisine (washoku) is typically presented as homogenous and static. In reality, examining the history, key ingredients, tastes, and values of Japanese cuisine from the ancient (6th century ce) through the medieval periods (ending c. 1600) reveals the diversity in Japanese food cultures, as well as some of their less emphasized continuities. This diversity is evident despite the limitations of the premodern sources, which foregrounds the practices of the literate classes who were able to leave records. First, while rice held significant political and cultural significance, its actual role as a caloric staple, and even its serving styles, varied considerably by class and period. Second, seafoods such as katsuo (skipjack tuna), abalone, and seaweed contribute to other modes of appreciation such as wordplay and textures. Tracing the simultaneous duality of abundance-centered court banquets (daikyō) or honzen ryōri (main-tray cuisine) and tea ceremony cuisine (cha kaiseki) allows one to see how dining practices continually perform material and social capital, as well as embody various cultural values. Although ingredients, dishes, and tastes might change, Japanese food cultures are characterized by a varying but abiding engagement with food as an expression of power, identity, and sometimes contradicting values.