Tuesday, December 12, 2006

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.



1 comment:

Barba said...

Summary in Japanese (日本語要約)

【すきやきのお話】

日本人は、長い間、お肉を食べなかったんですね。ちょっと不思議な感じがしますね。

日本に稲作がはいってきたのは、縄文時代後期といわれていますが、はじめはシカやイノシシの肉も食べていたんです。しかし、稲作を発展させるために肉食を犠牲にしたようです。古代律令国家では、675年に肉食禁止令がだされました。稲作期間は、豊作を祈願して肉食を禁止する、あるいは、大仏開眼の年は殺生を禁止するなど。米は聖なるもの肉は穢れたものという観念を定着していった。仏教の寺でも精進のため肉や魚を食べなかった。もちろん、凶作のとき、あるいは隠れて食べていた記録はあるそうです。

幕末の頃、西洋料理が紹介されるようになった。しかし、庶民はなかなか肉を使った西洋料理になじめなかった。そこで、いろいろな工夫がされた。日本人は伝統的にそういうことが得意。そのひとつが、牛鍋(すきやきのこと)でした。日本食の味覚の基本である醤油・味噌(味噌はあとで砂糖になった)を使って煮たんです。すでに安政年間に福沢諭吉らが試してみたそうです。1868年江戸の高橋音松という人が「すきやき」と称して販売した、これがすき焼きのデビューです。

1873年、明治天皇が牛肉を試食され、肉は滋養があるということで、次第に普及していくことになった。お墨付きをいただいたんです。

食べるときは、卵につけていただきます。日本酒もごいっしょにどうぞ。