Food studies is a fairly new and evolving subfield. This area of expertise pervades many otherwise unrelated liberal arts disciplines and joins scholars together around a similar topic. While the list of academic materials related to food studies is ever growing, many topics still need additional references. Japanese Studies is one such area. While some excellent books have already been written on this topic, more (particularly English language versions) are needed in order to continue the advancement of the food sub-field. Japanese Foodways: Past and Present, in this regard, is an invaluable resource both due to its topical specificity as well as its usefulness between disciplines.
Japanese Foodways: Past and Present is topically broad, with fourteen different articles covering a large span of Japanese history. The book is sectioned off into three major areas: Early Modern Japan, Modern Japan, and Contemporary Japan. These terms are roughly organized around historical periods: respectively the Tokugawa in the first, Meiji, Taisho, and post-World War II periods in the second, and 1990s and 2000s in the third. I could not however, help noticing a partial exclusion of the 1980s. This time period has been so well-documented in scholarly literature that perhaps Rath and Assman chose to concentrate on less-discussed time periods. The topics range from discussions of Dutch merchants selling wine to daimyo to creation of cultural commodities in rural Japan. Not all the articles are strictly academic. Some, as in “‘Stones for the Belly’: Kaiseki Cuisine for Tea during the Early Edo Period,” serve a more explanatory function with menus and descriptions that seek to increase accessibility to these otherwise difficult primary sources.
Within the major divisions present in the book, distinct topical trends exist. In Early Modern Japan, the first three articles are structuralist in both tone and subject matter. Meals are deconstructed piece by piece in order to better analyze the motivations behind creating such organized events. Modern Japan has a more political slant, with discussion of the U.S. Occupation, black markets, rations, and women’s role in society. The final area, Contemporary Japan, speaks to the more recent trend of tradition reinvention and commodification.
While this book is indeed an excellent resource, I found that both the omission of the 1980s and the reluctance to consult archaeological records makes Japanese Foodways: Past and Present somewhat incomplete. The book’s research is mostly text-based with little focus on history as observed through other forms of material culture. Also, not including the 1980 bubble years misses a critical and unique moment in Japanese history. The exclusion of these areas creates a gap within the book’s content that, while not completely essential, is noticeable.
Japanese Foodways: Past and Present is an exciting addition to a growing collection of English-language literature on the foodways of Japan, comparable in usefulness to Katarina Cwiertka’s Modern Japanese Cuisine. Topics are explored with enough breadth that individuals from various liberal arts disciplines will find this book an excellent addition to their libraries.
WORK CITED
Cwiertka, Katarzyna. 2006. Modern Japanese Cuisine: Food, Power, and National Identity. London: Reaktion Books.
--------
[Review length: 508 words • Review posted on November 4, 2011]