Sukiyaki Story

It’s kind of weird that the Japanese have not eaten meat for a long time.

I hear that it’s late Jomon period that rice growing was delivered to Japan. At that time they had eaten venison and boar meat. But meat eating seems to have been exchanged in order to develop rice growing.. In 675, the ancient imperial court issued a meat diet prohibition law. For example, during rice growing works, the meat eating was prohibited to pray for a good harvest or the killing of animals was prohibited in the year of opening the eyes of the Great Buddha. Rice is sacred and meat is dirty; such an idea was gradually implanted. Even in Buddhism temples monks abstained from eating fish and meat.　　Of course there are the documents mentioning that meat was eaten in secret or in the case of lean crop, I hear.

Around the end of Edo era, Western cuisines were introduced. But at first ordinary people could not get used to Western cuisines using meat. Then, various kinds of things were done to enjoy meat. Traditionally the Japanese are excel at such things. One of them was gyu nabe (or sukiyaki). (Sukiyaki is beef and vegetables flavored with soy sauce and served in a pan.) Beef was flavored with soy sauce and fermented soybean paste (later changed to sugar) which were basics of Japanese cuisine taste. During Ansei period of Edo era, Yukichi Fukuzawa and others had already tried this food. In 1868 a person named Otomatsu Takahashi living in Edo started to sell it in the name of “sukiyaki.” This is the debut of sukiyaki.

In 1873, Meiji Emperor tasted beef cuisine (I don't know what kind of cuisine Emperor had), and after that gradually meat has become popular for the reason that it is a good food. People received the official go-ahead.

Eat meat with beaten egg. Try to taste Japanese sake together.