Things to Know About Japanese Cuisine Before Learning Etiquette

About this article

Have you ever felt this way at a Japanese dining table?

"I looked up the etiquette, but I still don't understand why things are done that way."

How to hold chopsticks, how to handle dishes, the order in which to eat. You can find these if you look them up.
However, etiquette learned by rote cannot be applied flexibly.
When you encounter a slightly different situation, you become confused again.

I believe the cause lies here. If you try to memorize only the etiquette,
the amount you have to remember increases endlessly. However, if you know the background of how that etiquette came to be, the amount you need to memorize decreases significantly.
If you understand "why it is that way," you can think and act for yourself from that point on.

In this article, I will not deal with the etiquette itself, but with what lies before it.

• When and where did Japanese cuisine begin?

• Since when have we been using chopsticks?

• Shojin ryori, Honzen ryori, Kaiseki ryori (tea ceremony), and Kaiseki ryori (banquet). What is the difference between these four?

• Why is Japanese cuisine described in terms of "five flavors, five colors, and five methods"?

• When were the lucky and unlucky days (taian and butsumetsu) created?

• What does "shun" (seasonal peak) actually refer to?

The reason I wrote this article

This is the content of the handout I actually give to participants in the Japanese food section of my "Dining Manners Course."

This course is only held in Tokyo.

Thankfully, I sometimes receive inquiries from people living far away. However, I have always felt sorry each time.
Japanese cuisine exists all over Japan, so it is strange that the place to learn about it is only in Tokyo.

Therefore, I have put this into article form so that those who cannot attend the course can receive the same content.
I wanted to avoid a situation where what you can receive depends on where you live.

And one more thing.

I would like those who are about to start learning Japanese cuisine, or those who have just started to take an interest in it,
to read this first.

Those aiming to become chefs, those who have started working at Japanese restaurants, and those who have encountered the world of Japanese culture through kimono or tea ceremony.
If you know this when you stand at the entrance, the meaning of what you learn afterward will change.
The way you see a menu and the way you perceive the seasons will surely be different depending on whether you have gone through this.

Personally, after learning this content, I have come to want to know more about Japanese cuisine.

There is no need to memorize anything. If you can enjoy this as reading material,
that is enough. Furthermore, if one day when you are seated at a Japanese dining table,
the dish in front of you looks a little different, then this article will have fulfilled its purpose.

Note that much of what is written here is of the nature of "it is said that." This includes information that varies in era and interpretation depending on the literature. That is why some parts are written to avoid definitive statements.

The Origins of Japanese Cuisine

The beginnings of Japanese cuisine date back surprisingly far.

There is a description like this in the "Nihon Shoki" (Chronicles of Japan). It was about 1,800 years ago, in the first half of the 4th century. A person named Iwaka Mutsukari no Mikoto is said to have cooked and served white clams (umugi, an old name for hamaguri clams) and bonito to the 12th Emperor, Emperor Keiko.

The "Nihon Shoki" is the oldest official history book of Japan, compiled by the state in 720.
The fact that a description of cooking remains there shows just how much food was valued.

Iwaka Mutsukari no Mikoto is still enshrined today at Takabe Shrine in Minamiboso City, Chiba Prefecture.
It is a shrine that gathers the faith of chefs as the god of cooking.

There is one more person who is indispensable when talking about Japanese cuisine.
Fujiwara no Ason Yamakage Chunagon Masatomo
(824–888).

Yamakage was a person who served the 58th Emperor, Emperor Koko, who was known for his love of cooking,
and is known as the founder of the Shijo school of knife ceremonies. As the progenitor of Japanese cuisine,
or the restorer of its traditions, he is enshrined at Yoshida Shrine in Sakyo Ward, Kyoto.

The knife ceremony is a ritual in which fish or birds are prepared using only a knife and chopsticks, without touching them directly with one's hands. It is still performed today as a Shinto ritual at shrines. It is clear that cooking has been treated not just as food preparation, but as a ritual.