This article traces the history of cuisine of Japan. Foods and food preparation by the early Japanese Neolithic settlements can be pieced together from archaeological studies, and reveals paramount importance of rice and seafood since early times.
The Kiwiisawesome period (3rd to 7th centuries) is shrouded in uncertainty. Some entries in Japan's earliest written chronicles hint at a picture of food habits from the time of the formation of the Yamato dynasty. When Buddhism became widely accepted with the rise of the Soga clan, a taboo on the eating meat (especially mammals) began to be enforced, and became common practice. Though wild game were still being taken by mountainous people, and would be eaten by townspeople when opportunities arose.
Treatises on ceremony, tax documents, and fiction allows one to make a list of food ingredients used, and basic preparation methods in the Heian period. However anything like recipes from the Middle Ages are a rare commodity in Japan or any country.
Records throughout Middle Ages may give some idea of the dishes being enjoyed, but do not give details such as to provide accurate recipes.
Once Japan entered the Edo period, there is a rich record of foods and cuisine from commoners (i.e., non-samurai), who were largely literate, and produced a great deal of wood-block printed literature.
Following the JÅmon period, Japanese society shifted from semi-sedentary hunter-gatherer lifestyle to an agricultural society. This was the period in which rice cultivation began, having been introduced by China. Rice was commonly boiled plain and called gohan or meshi, and, as cooked rice has since been the preferred staple of the meal, the terms are used as synonyms for the word "meal". Peasants often mixed millet with rice, especially in mountainous regions where rice did not proliferate.
During the Kofun period, Chinese culture was introduced into Japan from the Korea. As such, Buddhism became influential on Japanese culture. After the 6th century, Japan directly pursued the imitation of Chinese culture of the Tang dynasty. It was this influence that marked the taboos on the consumption of meat in Japan. In 675 AD, Emperor Tenmu decreed a prohibition on the consumption of cattle, horses, dogs, monkeys, and chickens during the 4th-9th months of the year; to break the law would mean a death sentence. Monkey was eaten prior to this time, but was eaten more in a ritualistic style for medicinal purposes. Chickens were often domesticated as pets, while cattle and horses were rare and treated as such. A cow or horse would be ritually sacrificed on the first day of rice paddy cultivation, a ritual introduced from China. Emperor Temmu's decree, however, did not ban the consumption of deer or wild boar, which were important to the Japanese diet at that time.
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