Japanese Food
Click here for the Sword and Chrysanthemum Feast Information
The following are random generalizations and incomplete lists that will hopefully be organized someday:
Please remember that China and Japan are two separate countries. Japan imported a lot of items and culture from China but just because they had something in China does NOT mean Japan picked it up!
| Jomon Era (8000 - 400 BCE) | |
| 8000 BCE | shellfish (like clams), fresh & dried fish |
| 2000 BCE | buckwheat, wheat, foxtail millet, millet (no grains were grown on a large scale, however), ryokuto bean, gourds, perilla (beefsteak plant), acorns, walnuts, Japanese chestnuts, horse chestnuts, deer, boar, dried tuna and bonito (katsuo-bushi = dried shaved bonito) |
| 400 BCE | salt from seawater, sansho, rice, koji fermentation to make alcohol from rice |
| Yayoi Era (400 BCE - 250 CE) | |
| domestic pigs, barley, deccan grass, soybeans, adzuki beans, melons, peaches | |
| 200 CE | Chinese account described diet of shellfish, fish, rice, millet, raw vegetables. It said they had ginger, citrus fruits, sansho and myoga (wild ginger) but do not know how to use them in cooking. It also said the Japanese were fond of alcohol. |
| Kofun Era (250 - 710 CE) | |
| fermentation technology introduced from China that allowed invention of shoyu (soy sauce) and miso | |
| 400's | Korean named Susukori gave brewed alcohol to Emperor - introduced new brewing method. |
| 694-710 | Excavated pottery marked "carp shiokara" - shiokara = fish, shellfish, or squid pickled with 25-30% salt in watertight container. Used as a side dish. |
| Nara Era (710 - 794) | |
| 600's-834 | Japanese cultural embassies were sent to China to absorb culture - brought back many foods & preparation ideas which were copied. |
| togashi (Chinese cakes) | |
| dairy products introduced but never caught on. Emperor and court used dairy products like medicine. | |
| 700's | chewed rice mash alcohol |
| Heian Era (794 - 1192) | |
| 700's-900's | narezushi (matured sushi)- salted freshwater fish and boiled rice sealed in jar. Rice was discarded and fish was sliced and eaten as savory food or mashed into paste. |
| 815 | tea served to the Emperor by Eichu, a Japanese man who had studied in China for 30 years. |
| 900's | 15 types of sake were known at court |
| Kamakura Era (1192 - 1336) | |
| Muromachi Era (1392 - 1568) | |
| 1400's | other types of sushi developed - salted fish and boiled rice sealed for shorter time |
| Momoyama Era (1568 - 1600) | |
| Edo Era (1600 - 1868) | |
| 1600's | Sweet potato, alcohol from sweet potato |
| 1800's | making fruit wines |
Rice:
Japonica type rice, both glutinous and non-glutinous eaten plain. Until industrial era rice was pounded with mallets to remove hull - this partially removed the bran. So through the 17th C. all rice was unpolished (not white) but not as "brown" as modern brown rice with entire bran intact.
Boiling was the most common method in Japan since 13th C., known since Yayoi era: Combine 1.2 parts water to 1 part rice. Apply high heat at beginning, then less heat as water is absorbed (to prevent burning).
Steaming: Used since 5th C for glutinous rice for special occasions, most common method through 12th C.
Sushi:
The word "sushi" may derive from an ancient term meaning "acid" or "tart". The only sushi known pre-1600's was pressed sushi, with or without fish. Early sushi used rice as a medium for preserving salted fish but rice was thrown away.
Eating methods:
The Japanese were described by a Chinese visitor in 200CE as eating with fingers from a dish with attached base.
In the Nara period ambassadors to China brought back with them eating methods and etiquette that lasted through the Heian era. This included eating with chopsticks, which filtered to the lower classes and has remained the primary eating method to this day. The Chinese used spoons for serving dishes and eating rice and soups, but the Japanese customs of individual portions, eating sticky rice and bringing the bowl directly to the mouth for drinking soups made the spoon unnecessary. Court banquets modeled after the Chinese included metal and glass dishes and metal spoons for eating rice and liquids but those materials were too expensive for the average person and so their use died out with the decline of the courts.
Deep-frying and cooking with oil seems to have been introduced by the Portuguese and therefore came in the late 1500's or after 1600. Most food before that was steamed, simmered, boiled or grilled.
Other post-1600's foods: bread, wheat (including udon, tempura), chickens, cows, milk, cheese. Chickens and cattle existed earlier, but were scarce and not considered food sources.
Common foods pre-1600:
Rice, lots of different fish, fish eggs, squid, octopus, crab, seaweed, rice, root vegetables similar to carrots and turnips, millet, edible grasses, rice, Japanese eggplant, burdock root (gobo), rice, bamboo shoots in the spring, chestnuts in the fall, chrysanthemum greens, asian spinach, mustard greens, ume (acidic member of the apricot family, usually pickled with red shiso or made into umezu, juice), persimmons, rice, soybeans (edamame are green soybeans), tofu, miso, duck and quail eggs.
Animals that existed but weren't eaten for much of the period because of Buddhist prohibitions against eating animals (things in the sea don't count as "animals"):
Various birds (incl. quail, duck, pheasant), deer, monkey, boar, bear
Seasonings:
Japanese sansho pepper, bonito flakes, seaweed, sesame seeds, salt, tamari (period soy sauce was actually closer to tamari because modern soy sauce is made with a lot of wheat), sake (brewed from rice), mirin (sweet rice wine), umezu, ginger, ponzu (from citron)