Food and eating in Edo era and today in Japan
Due to economic development and globalization in recent years, Japanese people can reach a variety of delicious foreign food without traveling abroad. However, before modern times, in Edo-era, when the national isolation policy was enacted by Tokugawa shogunate, most Japanese people had no choice but to eat only Japanese food. I am going to explore the food and eating of ordinary people in Edo-era, compared to those of today.
The Japanese traditional eating style is rice, miso-soup, main dish and side dish(es), which is seen in Kaiseki cuisine. In Edo-era, however, meals of ordinary people seem to have been far poorer and less nutritious. Only rice, miso-soup, and pickles could be breakfast, even dinner. Rice was eaten among relatively well-to-do people in towns, whereas poor peasants ate millet instead of rice, which they cultivated but had to give away as tax.
As protein, beans were often cooked and served, stewed with vegetables. Tofu, natto, abura-age made from beans were as popular as today, but more expensive in Edo era. As there was no refrigerator, of course, fish were usually dried, broiled and served. Sashimi (raw fish) was eaten only among wealthy people, whilst most today’s Japanese people
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Eating meat of ‘yotsu-ashi’ (animals with 4 legs) was religiously abhorred and prohibited. It was after Meiji-era when meat dishes were introduced to Japan, along with other movements of westernization. Yoshoku-ya (western food restaurants) began to appear in towns in Meiji-era. However, meat was cooked in a different way from original western dishes so as to meet the tastes of Japanese people, such as tonkatsu (pork cutlet), omu-rice (omelet), curry rice and so on. Bread was introduced at that time, too, but it was far later that people began to eat it on a daily