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The story of how Japanese food came to take the form it does today is a fascinating one, and is of course indelibly linked to the history of Japan itself.
Contrasting cuisines
For hundreds of years after Japanese cuisine first emerged as a distinct style of cooking and dining during the Nara (710-794) and Heian (794-1185) eras, the ruling classes and the masses ate very different kinds of food. The former enjoyed formal and beautifully presented dishes that reflected the changing of the seasons, including the shojin, honzen and cha-kaiseki cuisines. These are formed of several courses, featuring soups and numerous and varied small dishes, and are still eaten to this day as kaiseki ryori, although usually only on ceremonial occasions. The working classes, meanwhile, ate plain but nourishing food, which was viewed as fuel, rather than as something to savour and enjoy.
The Edo gourmet boom
The masses were not able to enjoy food for pleasure until the Edo Period (1603-1867), when Edo (now Tokyo) was made capital, and Japan entered a period of peace and stability. The city quickly grew to become the largest in the world, with a population of one million, and many young working men demanding quick, nourishing food that was also a pleasure to eat. Many food shops, stalls and carts sprung up to cater to their needs, selling ‘fast food’ that placed less emphasis on presentation and more on speed, convenience and taste. These delicious dishes could be enjoyed by all, and form the basis of Japanese cuisine as we know it today, including such quintessential favourites as sushi, soba noodles, tempura and kabayaki.
Today’s tasty cuisine for all
This trend continued after Edo, and through to the Meiji Period, when one key innovation was the increased consumption of meat. This gave rise to a new range of dishes that remain popular to this day, including tonkatsu (breaded deep-fried pork) and shabu shabu (thin slices of beef cooked in dashi). Today, the legacy of this rich history means that Japanese cuisine offers the aesthetic beauty and refinement of the kaiseki tradition, contrasted with the relaxed informality of dishes that date from the country’s gourmet boom.
History Chart - Click the image to enlarge
