Oishinbo’s Adventure’s in Eating  
Lauri Brau

• Food in Japanese media is very prevalent; food travelogues, celebrity cooking shows, films and, manga - Oishinbo specifically is gourmet food manga.
•  1970s - food had infested itself into the manga world (apprentices/athletes journeys became popular)
• These manga are often targeted towards men (men rule the professional realm of food)
• Shows readers the the array of cuisines (from other country’s to experimenting in the home)

Cuisine as Comic Book

• Japanese language’s onomatopoeia allows cooking manga to have full power (texture, tempurature, sound)
• Graphic realism 
  

Oishinbo: An “Ultimate Menu” of Information and Entertainment

• “cultural treasure to bequeath the future” (carefully selected chefs for this assignment)
• food to the rescue 
• Oishinbo acts as a “guide” in Japan for people who do not know how to make their way through so many of the cuisines available in Japan
• also focuses on Japanese “traditional” ways  (how to steam rice, make miso soup etc)
  

The Contest and the Way of Cuisine

• find what is right (zen in making sushi vs. arrogance and haste)
• “motenashi no kokoro” (is THE “way”)
• “the only thing thing that can move a person’s spirit is another person’s spirit...Cooking is an act of communication between souls.”
• creating food the suits the consumer - does not have to be gourmet to be good
• competitions to settle conflict - lessons taught

Rice and the Expression of Japanese Identity

• rice is a “sacred symbol”
• subject of rice episodes are many (Thai rice, other rice importation issues, Japanese Mystification) 
• Samurai used to be paid in rice (edo)
• fall festival circulate around rice harvest and “the soul of the Japanese”

Food and Memory

• changes in the food industry (not as good as I remember...)
  
• episode on a man’s quest for “mother’s love” 
  
• food in place of words for communication is common in Oishinbo
  
• no time for breakfast = impoverished Japanese society
  

• “What they say is certainly true: you can clearly see the condition of a society through its food”
• many sentimental stories = cultural identity

Oishinbo (the manga)
Story by Tetsu Kariya
Illustrations by Akira Hanasaki

The manga starts out with intro of high lighted dishes and how to prepare them “properly” according to Japanese tradition and culture (which means that any food has to appeal to all five senses). The first chapter basically introduced us to Yamaoka and Kaibara (son and father). After reading the Oishinbo article I was expecting a manga that had to do with food - but not anything on this level! This could be more of an illustrated cookbook to some extent. When Yamaoka dips the konbu into the water to make dashi, three panels were used to show the exact steps. Not just that, though. They also explain all the reasons for why something is good or bad so you are learning a lot from it - it seems like a lot more than a manga. 

I feel the gender roles are pretty prevalent. The otaku is a woman who takes the lashes from Kaibara and does things like apologize for showing emotions. Then Kurita, though she sense something is not so right with the food (or at least not as good as the others saying) she only thinks it - does not say it. There is also the part where Yamaoka speaks of his mother - how Kaibara is responsible for her death because he was demanding and unappreciative. I think this is also pretty obvious that she was an “ultimate” housewife - working so, so hard for her husband that she literally worked herself to death. I’m interested in reading on, the fun of manga but without as much guilt because you actually learn something!




The Gourmet Club
Jun’Ichiro Tanizaki

• The Gourmet club was a group of five men who indulged in food the same way as men might indulge in women and gambling. Obsessed with fine food - but not in good health and usually laughed it off. 
  
• Food as an ART. 
  
• Traveling far and wide - even dreaming - for the best foods. 
  
• Fell to boredom...needed something new and exciting (“symphony of foods, orchestral cuisine”)
  

Story of Count G. and his dreams of food - he finds a traditional chinese place (Chechiang) that is not “Tokyo Restuarant” style food but “for Chinese people only”. 

• Though he is denied by the president of the Chechian Hall club, the man who he befriended lets him watch what happens through a hole in the wall - that viewing leads to his many culinary adventures and creativity. So Count G. made a feast for the other members and fascinated them with wonderful dishes - despite their standard Chinese cuisines names (even the burps were good...).
• Count G. considers his grand menu “Gastronomical Magic!”
• Second meal....deep fried woman korean style (batter on the flesh only is eaten)
• The Gourmet Club continued to a point where the members themselves were said to be consumed by fine cuisine. 
  

Creepy: 

• “pork loins and pigs legs...the bristles had been carefully shaven off, and the skin was as soft, white, and luscious as any woman’s. “
• “As the Count watched, spoons were thrust in from every side, and the original form of the piglet disappeared chunk by chunk, form the outside inward, as if by magic.”
• “As you know, from ancient time we Chinese have eaten swallow’s nests. We’ve eaten shark’s fins, bear’s paws, deer’s hoof sinews. But our president was the first to show us how to eat tree bark, and bird droppings, and human saliva.” ( also how to cook the food and what to put the food into) 
• Though he is denied by the president of the Chechiang Hall club, the man who he befriended lets him watch what happens through a hole in the wall - that viewing leads to his many culinary adventures and creativity. So Count G. made a feast for the other members and fascinated them with wonderful dishes - despite their standard Chinese cuisines names (even the burps were good...).
  

I have to admit that though it was a very interesting piece to read - it was also very grotesque. The descriptions of different kinds of food and the experiences of those foods were fascinating - completely intricate so that you could nearly taste it or at least see it before you. It brings a very aesthetic and sensual aspect to food that you might not have when just looking at something such as a pbj sandwich. I’m really not too positive on what it is all supposed to mean. I think it many ways it glorifies Chinese cuisine - while simultaneously casting its image as nearly barbaric. There was also a very comedic value to it. Everything was so extreme that the dreams and the “reality” intertwined and it all just appeared in my head as an abstract story. The end was surprising - for by the time you get to the mentioned of “Deep Fried Woman, Korean-style” you are completely ready to believe that there are men picking at the bones of a deep fried woman - though my interpretation that it is only the dough that is eaten and she is simply what the dish is served upon. Overall...I’m pretty confused other than the fact that it is making fun of the idea of a “gourmet club” by taking everything to the extreme...

The Book of Tea Okakura Kakuzo [ excerpt ]
(Intro by Liza Dalby)

• When first written, “The Book of Tea” was only really meant for a small group of people - but it’s popular has grown over time (especially in the “West”). 
• Meant for “narrow elite, who might be expected to join in his protest against the spiritual misunderstandings that separated the East and West.”
• Trying to change tea from “cult of Japan” into something more meaningful (art, harmonious with daily life, natural...)
  

The Cup of Humanity:

• Teaism:  religious aestheticism of tea (cult focussing on beauty in life), not materialistic
• Philosophy of Tea: beyond aestheticism, deals with ethics, religion, view on man and nature. 
• Art, such as Teaism has not been appreciated as it should (it seems to trivial in the eyes of many who do not see simple/subtle things in life)
• The West has many ideas of the “East” due to the lack of effort in understanding. However the East also has an image of the “West” (“most impractical people on the earth”) 
• Though some barriers between were attempted to be overridden it did not necessarily work. Mostly materialistic interaction...(fashion, consumer goods)
• For the purpose of better understanding, Kakuzo is saying this bluntly: “Unfortunately the Western attitude is unfavorable to the understanding of East...” 
• “no tea” in the constitution of the “west” (despite the fact that there is definite tea culture)
  
• While tea was spreading over the world, it was met with opposition (some said “filthy custom”, loss of “comeliness” and beauty). 
  
• West and Eat can meet in the recognition of the Imperfect. 
  

The Tea Room

• Sukiya - humble (made of bamboo and wood, straw hut)
  

• apparently barren due to its simplicity 
• tea room, portico, garden path (steps toward enlightenment) 
• good tea room should cost more than a mansion (workers, materials etc)
  
• a tea room can displace you (from city to forest - arousal of the senses)
  
• the small door into the tea room is to level hierarchy of people (through humiliation) 
  
• if there is dust- you are not a tea master 
  
• the tea room is made FOR the tea master (not the other way around)
  
• However with zen and buddhist ideals, the tea room/house became only a temporary refuge for the body (rather than a deeper connection)
  
• inspired by the zen monastery tea room (bare except for alcove) - simplicity!
  
• There should only be one changing aspect (focus/appreciation) vs. WEST many, stationary 
• Tea culture has been finely crafted - all aspects thought out 
  
• Taoist/Zen ideals of perfection is more about the process (therefore guests are left to imagination to complete the effect of the space “in relation to himself”) 
  
• In Western homes things are ruled by symmetry and repetition (why do we have a portraits, food pictures, flower pictures in a room with all of those items in it already?)
  

Definitely interesting ideas - I had never thought about why we (in the WEST) have decorations that reflect the purpose of the room - how it is weird to have these mirrored thoughts. I wonder about the details of the tea - but that is something I can never tred upon...

Japanese Foodways, Past and Present
Chapter 13: Ramen Connoisseurs Class Gender and, the Internet 
Satomi Fukutomi 


Ramen As A Japanese “National Dish” 
Ramen from cheap/fast to a mastered art:

• customers waiting up to 12 hours outside ramen shop of Yamagishi on his last day
• “national food” (consumed my nation)

Ideas of class:

• taste is cultural, political, economical product (authenticity is reinvented through prestige)
  
• prestige is tied to class, but class cannot be definitely defined 
  
• connoisseurship is tied to class and therefore popular culture
  

Ramen has become a national dish due to its general popularity (it is widespread) as well as its regionalization. It can be considered “local speciality food” in almost all regions. 

There are even a ramen museums and theme parks! 

It seems that ramen critics/consultants help keep the ramen “industry” moving - promoting over a variety of media. The internet, though, has been vital in this boom of ramen where both dry info and emotion are brought to attention. 

Crossing Class Boundaries and Ritualizing Ramen:

• In the past ramen was food for “blue-collars” and “rough masculinity”.
  
• Development of the culture of eating out (aesthetic, white collar starters, incorporation of fashion industry) have helped transform that image (1996 “Ramen Revolution” says Osaki). Rituals also imbedded in the atmosphere (clothing, shouts, decor, attracted customers). 
  
• White collar men are targeted more because they are often on the go and wealthy enough to pay the 800 yen price.
  
• uri - selling point (this came in the style of the restaurant, whether it was “Japanese”, “Western” or “native/foreign hybrids”.)
  
• With “authentic Japanese” styles, the name of shop also makes a difference and often the shop ends of sending the message of “old Japan”. 
  
• Women are also more targeted (appealing interior) and paying close attention to ettiquette (providing paper aprons).
  
• Part of the movie Tampopo where the man explains how to eat ramen correctly is an example of raising the level/expectation of the food itself - this exaggerates the ramen culture while noting some truths including slurping ramen and drinking up the soup from the bowl. 
  

“Eating Loud” and Gender in Ramen

• Though dining out is considered classy, eating noodles loudly is a part of culture that can be dismissed despite the other baggage that goes along with eating out and high class life (etiquette, “what, where, and how to eat”).
  
• Ramen is loud and fast food (speedy prep, speedy eat, speedy next)
  
• Though now a lot of older ramen shops are targeted at men, shop owners are feeling the need to spread to women as well (feeling that they have a huge impact on market). 
  
• Also the culture around men and women’s eating habits are very different. 
  

Gendered Space in Virtual Consumption:

• Virtual Consumption (on the internet) is very popular with women because it includes talking ABOUT ramen. 
  
• “Internet serves to establish community and popular culture and create identity” (267)
  
• (this can include cyber ramen nerds as well as ramen aficionados)
  
• However this alienates the older generation and blue collar consumers who are not as savvy with the internet. 
  
• Women, though, are sensitive to image/identity (it is not exactly fashionable for women to go into old fashioned “men’s” ramen shops, but can be looked upon as “brave”). 
  
• Gender boundaries are not removed