Kojiki (translated by Donald L. Philippi) Nihongi (translated by W.G. Aston) Both the Nihongi and Kojiki were similar in ideas and are the two oldest books in Japan’s history. The Nihongi was written after the Kojiki in effort to make the history of Japan a little less mythological and more detailed. Below is a brief summary of the exerts.
Beginning of heaven and earth: Five original deities are considered to be Separate Heavenly Deities.
Then there are the seven Generations of the Age of the Gods.
Two of these gods are Izanagi-no-Kami and Izanami-no-kami. These two Gods were asked to “solidify the land”, or make the islands. The two then also have many offspring and through their time together some rules in society come up, such as gender roles. They give birth to islands and deities (that make up the natural world such as wind, mountains). The fire deity while being born kills the mother, Isanami, and Izanagi is upset. More deities are born through his adventure, such as from blood on his sword and his body parts. He goes to see Izanami’s corpse and she is angered by this and sends “ugly women” to pursue him. After they discontinue their bond, she threatens to kill many people and he counteracts with that he will have many born, therefore we have balance/growth in population. After this, Izanagi gives birth - alone - to deities such as the Sun Goddes and the Moon God.
The story continues - creation of gods and goddesses, including the food-goddess and teaching lessons that are the base of Japanese culture.
 The World On a Plate: Culinary Culture, Displacement and Geographical Knowledges by Ian Cook and Philip Crang Introduction:- “food on a plate”: the idea that you can flaunt having global cultures in a local setting
- letting go of “geographical knowledges” causes a dilemma between:
- discrediting distance yet
- knowledge on the variety of food sources/cultures
- “re-enchant” food from what we are accustomed to in our location
- food becomes a “cultural artifact” (displacement or “mosaic”?)
- Mosaic: recognition of the variety of peoples/places/cultures on all levels and also the flow between them (tourism)
- Geographies in food:
- local (“spaces of identity practices”)
- global (spacial structures of “systems of provision” including tech, knowledge, resources etc...)
- geographical knowledge on materials
Globalization: “social-scientific concept” (two differing ideas) - interactions between places/people have recently become more meddled which leads to a “compressed” world
- seeing the world as one
- cultural foods are therefore partly due to the differentiating between cultures as they come together
- culture is the product of areas of economic stability (“materialization of the economic”)
- “cultural ‘diversity sell’”
- detachment of people and the image of their food and what the food really is.
- “global miniaturization” (tourist quality)
- “babel of national dishes”
- cooking a “vacation” at home
Regional Foods: “invented traditions” - gives a place “symbolic constructs”
Geographical Knowledges: “consumer’s knowledges about foods geographies are significant in both culinary cultural practices and to the economics of the food industry” - “circuits of culinary culture” food and their knowledge and “provided and consumed”
- Settings: where/how food can/should be used
- Biographies: how they are a part of the food system
- Origins: where it comes from
“Ethnic Cuisine” : product of more tourism, promoting awareness, and exposure (books etc...), technological advances (year round quality food from everywhere!) - product qualities of food should include the place, soil, climate, natural and human factors as well
Consumers:- ability to recognize the “food fetish” and rebel by recognizing places/production
Conclusion: understand cultural geography and displacement (and recognizing the cultural material)
The Making of a National Cuisine CwiertkaJapanese Cuisine Washoku - “modern invention” of late 19th century due to foreign food increase ”Japanese-ness” are both true to history and changed with “technology, needs and tastes” Two pillars: 1.) “a variety of local consumption practices, customs and attitudes” and 2.) imports Circumstances for modern Japanese food: - "civilization and enlightenment” (Western influence)
- -“rich country, strong army”, “Good wife, wise mother” modernized home cooking
- -wartime food limitations nationwide
- -“imperialist ambitions” brought Chinese and Korean food into Japanese mod food
- -post war economy ended development of Japanese cuisine
- -“falsify history” with things like kaiseki that put on the image of knowledge, time, beauty, philosophy etc... ALL FOR MONEY because it appeals to people
Nationwide cuisine and identity - mixing of cultures, search for identity in food as well
- that’s how we have labels for food groups (not true to origin)
- “nation” as a modern idea (imagined community is a nation, anything outside of immediate circular of known people, but idea of nation is promoted therefore we believe, forget details and identify as one!)
- cuisine can be propelled by different reasons (struggles, politics, mass etc)
Globalization: - difficult to find local foods
- pros and home cookers depend on imports
- science in food has changed “first world” countries alike
- eating of “Unknown ingredients” and things led to social rank
- national cuisines = “tourist artifact”
The History of Domestic Cookbooks in Modern Japan Higashiyotsuyanagi- -late 1800s came changed gender roles “god wives wise mothers’
- -promoted by books on clothing, cooking and what not
- -1600-1868 Edo Period, cookbooks were published (mostly for men)
- a little before 1850, cookbooks for women appeared
- Meiji Restoration, cookbooks on western cuisine and for women
- “beef eating was a true mark of becoming a civilized country”
- eating beef and drinking milk was promoted (you’ll be stronger and taller)
- late 1800s came western cookbooks for women (inexpensive, easy to understantd)
- Christian Missionaries, education for women, “home economics”
- cookbooks also gave advice on how to entertain or even run a household “modern”
Transition from “Supervisory Housewife” to the “Practical Housewife” - “All-Year Delicacy Cooking for Amateurs” (supervision is important, not cooking but still participating)
- “practical”, simple, easy and useful became trendy/sell points in cookbooks
- some books pressed “significance of cooking for women”/ “desirable occupation” (like the women in the west) early 1900s
- management of kitchen = management of finance
- not being able to cook or sew is a disgrace! (use threat of mother-in-law)
The Prosperity of Domestic Cookbooks for “Practical Housewives”- drastic change of women in early 1900s - “new housewife” (in cookbooks)
- “new woman” independent, professional, stylish (increase of middle class women), leading to more housewife culture (lack of servants)
- cookbooks aimed at “young” and “puzzled” housewives worrying about budget
- economical cooking and recycling became popular after economic troubled times in japan
- good/economic housewife=happy family/help pay national debt=patriotism=national and economic stability/prosperity/longevity
- dealing with guests was not as much a concern - all economic and healthy (substitutions in food to save money as well, oh no...)
- “ New Woman’s Association” (political rights)
*** so cookbooks that encouraged economic ways of cooking and focuses on “happiness” and nutrition were guided that way to help contribute to relieving economic crisis on nation and perhaps emotional ones as well (“mirrored a national discourse connected mainly to build up Japan’s wealth and power”) The formation of housewives played a crucial role in the creation of modern japan (“national kitchen politics”). How to make a national cuisine : cookbooks in contemporary India (arjun appadurai) COOKBOOKS are: - cookbooks are “representations not only fo structures of production and distribution and of social cosmological schemes, but of class and hierarchy” (1982, Jack goody)
- shows the “civilizing process” (norbert elias)
Where are cookbooks used? - literate, class hierarchy, cooking communicable type of knowledge
- usually for higher class food (foreign and complicated)
INDIA: - cooking has a lot to do with “moral and medical beliefs and prescriptions” (similar to earlier times in China and Europe)
- today’s cuisine seems to be very ethnic and regional
- cookbooks are increasing also due to middle class increase
SOCIAL WORLD OF THE NEW INDIAN CUISINE: - -the middles class is wide spread and large
- -professionals and other workers that are moved from their roots live in and with others that are separated, which leads them to become more westernized and influenced...(linked nationally through pop culture)
- -cookbooks allow mingling between different groups of people (experience one another’s tastes)
- -also recipe sharing, sharing skills = “Indian” cookbooks but is pressing the “boundaries” of ethnicities, more mingling
- also all the broadening of tastes lead to an array of stereotype foods, “standardized by cookbooks” (pressure on housewives to to broaden skills as well)
- Pressure on housewives:
- broaden skills AND keep tradition (or stereotype of it)
- budget and time
Restaurants: - -still working through cultural differences
- -increasing in popularity in life in india
- -restaurants/station stands/hostels etc...= “Heightened importance of institutional, large scale, public food consumption”
Technology and cultural pressures have actually put a lot more stress on middle class housewives, the image is promoted on cook books and what not... Culinary Texts and Standards in Indian History (questions): - “why india history has not, until recently, witnessed the same degree of textualization of the culinary realm as several other complex civilizations. “ - “the other question of the historical forces that until this century have militated against the formation of a civilizational culinary standard in India. “ “food is never medically or morally neutral.”
“Food becomes relevant to this concern as a matter of managing the moral risks of human interactions, or as a matter of managing the moral risks of human interactions, or as a matter of sustaining the appetites of the gods (who in turn bestow grace and protection), or as a matter of cultivating those bodily or mental states that are two side of the same coin.:
- Hindu India wasn’t unified or set up for communication until creation of the modern nation-state which would explain the delay and had stayed regional for so long (PEASANT DIETS DEPENDED ON ECOLOGICAL AND SEASONAL FACTORS!!!)
Basically Indian food isn’t representative of the nation as a whole, but odd and influenced dishes of certain for urban areas/westernized areas of India. In the later 1900s (60s and 70s) a lot of other cookbooks became specialized in certain areas, or targeted specific people. However in Indian cookbooks more regional recipes and cookbooks started coming around, acting almost as “tourist art”.
Also when writing a cookbook (from the inside) it can be difficult to find a balance between including things that are attractive, ethnic, and not unusual/disgusting to people who don’t know better. Writing a cookbook (from the outside) is easier because usually that person also only knows a “dumbed down” version of the true recipes.
Also cookbook cuisines that have more connections/technology/media have more influence and therefore control more of the cuisine in India and even considered to be Indian. (Confusion between Mughali and Indian Food)
“The idea of an “Indian Cuisine has emerged because of, rather than despite, the increasing articulation of regional and ethnic cuisines. As in other modalities of identity and ideology in emergent nations, cosmopolitan and parochial expressions enrich and sharpen each other by dialectical interaction. Especially in culinary matters, the melting pot is a myth. “
“Cuisine and identity in contemporary Japan” by Theodore C. Bestor - -food is a very significant part of our lives, people don’t always see it
- - In Japan class, social power and “cultural prestige” play a part in our food choices
- divides domestic and cosmopolitan
- “culinary authenticity” is due to some identity crisis/struggles
- yoshoku was partly introduced to Japan through the military since it’s easier to cook in quantity
- food such as omlet rice, tonkatsu and even curry are part of the early “westernization”
- osechi ryori (new years), kaiseki (tea ceremony), shojin (buddhist vegetarian), Kyo-ryori (Kyoto)
- “ the culinary imagination reflects, therefore, a loose agreement on a common and sustained template of cuisine as something definable and distinctive, something with more or less known qualities and boundaries.”
- Japanese are some of the few that consider raw food to be food. (“the raw in Japanese culture thus represents culturalized nature...raw food of the Japanese represents a highly crafted cultural artifact presented as natural food”
- Japanese food culture and Japanese culture evolves around rice
Religion: - Shinto, Taoism, Buddhism
- affected meat consumption
- vegetarianism, lots of tofu, morphed into tea ceremony cuisine
- also Chinese ideas of health/bodies came into play (how fire, water, wood, metal, earth affect our body, mental health, seasons, illness etc...)
Calendars: - Japanese food culture cares about seasons
- “hatsumono” : first products of the season
- food seasons are also a part of other season traditions such as poems, changing greetings, kimono patters...
- calendar also includes holidays and other festivities
- New Years: osechi has a lot of colors and foods that have meaning
- mid-late summer : unagi
- setsubun (february): throwing rice and giant rice balls (food industry)
Regional: - many micro-regional food cultures depending on landscape
- food labeling : very precise about location
- plays a large part in tourism (omiyage, ekiben)
- tastes vary in different regions (soy sauce saltiness, red or white fish...)
Domesticating Foreign Cuisine: - depending on the environment, asian cuisine is similar
- “Like all other aspects of “tradition,” food culture constantly evolves.
- Japanese food has been influenced by many cultures over time to create what it is today
- during the Edo period many aspects of the country prospered (some local businesses became regional etc..)
- Meiji (1868-1912) increase in imported items
- increase in western settlers brought about the wax model food
- 1920s - supermarkets and department stores started to define a divide between classes
- also increase in industrial food processing and manufacturing
- the military helped to shape national cuisine (because nationalism is so important)
- The Occupation of Japan: a lot of dairy and meat
- Economic recovery (1950s and 1960s) changed foodways even more
- urbanization (and eating imported goods more)
- large manufactures
- McDonalds in 1970 - “commercial transformation”
- konbini put mom and pop shops out of business (also changed “nutrional standards” in Japan (more processed))
- Therefore : the industrialization of food
Branding Japanese Cuisine: - food choices characterize lifestyle
- culture is constructed a lot through industry (creation, production, content and distribution, reception and consumption) or, vice versa
- “cool Japan” triggered by all the manga, video games, fashion, music and cuisine (very popular)
Good to Think or Good to Eat Notes - marvin harris “good to eat” - Biologically: humans don’t eat even what we could
- Anthropologically: “fashionable premise” - “foodways are accidents of history which express or convey messages derived from essentially arbitrary values or inexplicable religious beliefs.”
- good or bad to think linked directly to good or bad to eat
- food must feed stomach before the “collective mind” (though people think otherwise)
- nutrition: cost vs. benefit (some food is really nutritious but expensive/hard/wasteful to produce)
- location and its conveniences decides good or bad to eat/think
- “dollars-and-cents” (monetary benefits of food) example infant formula in India (bad ads)
- society class/power effect on nutrition
BOOK “strategy”:- disprove standing ideas of foodways
- use nutritional, ecological and “dollars-and-cents” ideas to battle
Questions in reading:- "messages and meanings” or “preferences and aversions”
- “good or bad to eat” vs. “good or bad to think”
J apanese Food - donald keene Evolution of the “reputation of Japanese food” in the west - end of 16th century was “not good”, but noted for beautiful presentation
- 1910 only one Japanese restaurant founded in NYC (many Chinese)
- Recently: over 300 in NYC
Westerner’s taste - Tempura, sukiyaki, “fresh fish” more popular/edible BUT has recently changed to accepting and liking sashimi
- Japanese people tend to serve Westerners European food - making assumptions or protecting culture?
- very different from Chinese though many don’t know, French “disguises”, English “overcooked”, Japanese “natural flavor”
- Japanese breakfast is hard to appreciate (that meal is usually more “conservative”, more routine/methodical than other meals?)
Author’s experience:- first: 19, sukiyaki (raw egg!)
- Navy Japanese Language School, sashimi (did not like wasabi)
- 1953-55 studied at Kyoto Univ. ate only Japanese food to “understand Japanese culture”
- was “tested” with shiokara and natto (pushing the limits as “foreigner”)
- admiration for beauty/care/art of atmosphere (in restaurant garden)
- admiration for knowledge of food (season, textures, tastes etc)
- chefs “dance” of cooking (preparing TONKATSU YEAH!)
- sake compliments the food (in comparison to many wines of France or beer)
- has heard that as you age, you want to eat “mother’s home cooking” (says he might have been Japanese in a different life since he will most likely yearn for Japanese food)
Irretrievably in Love with Japanese Cuisine - david e. wells Author’s story:- Waseda Univ. Student, fell in love cuisine and attempted to enter culinary school there but administration did not understand is intention or want to “Why would a non-Japanese want to or even think that they could begin to understand our cuisine?” (he got in after second try)
- cleanliness, prevention and cooking
- tools/tests
-usubu (thin bladed veggie knife) : e.g. plum blossom carrots -deba (triangular blade, fish filleting) -yanagiba (sashimi knife) - had to change to right-handed for “flow of movement in kitchen” (Japanese don’t like left handedness)
- “first time in my life I truly experienced the four seasons, each with its own identity”
- apprenticed at Kaiseki restaurant (fish market experience)
- language barrier (but worked hard!)
- in charge of side dishes (zensai)
- second year, tempura asst. (sesame oil + frying oil!)
- AGAIN tempura/frying is like a dance, watching, judging, timing
returned to NYC worked at Japanese restaurant when a couple asked to become priv. chef! (first study two more years at Tsuji School of Cooking in Osaka) Tsuji Shizuo said “If one is to be a good chef, one must learn by tasting first, then by making.” uses handmade dishes for presentation while/after studying ceramics to “present the soul of cuisine” (three kinds: Oribe, Shino, Kiseto) came to the conclusion : “...the ultimate perfection can only be attained when the same hands that make and present the food are also the same hands that make the plates” Japanese Food Ideas/Ways - rice is the main dish, other dishes are made with the flavor of rice in mind
- incredibly fresh (even alive)
- bonito flakes and konbu make dashi
- Full-course dinner, 5 basic tastes: sweet, sour, bitter, salty and savory
- “textures are consider to be tastes” (mochi-mochi, shaki-shaki, pari-pari)
- tempura cooks test oil temp with finger
in Kaiseki dinner (“takes at least ten years in order to become a profession kaiseki chef” (memorize taste of the seasons) -50-80 ingredients -85% seasonal -otherwise salt, soy, miso, preserved ingred.
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