Keiko's Kitchen
Simple & Delicious Japanese Cooking
1. Japanese Cooking
−Nihon Ryori or Washoku?−
| Japanese cooking and Japanese dishes are casually called Nihon-ryori or
Washoku by Japanese people with no clear distinction between the two in
their mind.Why is it called by two different names then? Because they are
different. Some Japanese cultural anthropologists draw a clear and definite line between them. And I agree with them. They give the name Nihon-ryori, literally meaning Japanese cuisine and dishes, to what are originally Japanese and handed down generation after generation without any remarkable innovation. It keeps its own identity solidly. As you might have observed, there are no main dish in the courses of Nihon Ryori. It is a series of seasonal dishes in small volume. Nihon Ryori is modeled after the technical style of Chinese poems or literary works that commonly and basically have four orders that are Introduction, Development, Turn, and Conclusion. And in each section of the four orders, three different stages of the season are requested to be presented with the ingredients representing First Supply of the Season, Height of the Season, and Parting Season. On the other hand, Washoku, according to their definition, means what were originally from elsewhere in the world and have been modified to the liking of the Japanese. “Wa” of Washoku literally means ‘harmony’, ‘unity’, ‘peace’ and ‘reconciliation’. Shoku means food. Throughout the whole history of Japan, even since pre-historic days, the people on the island country have avidly brought in things created somewhere else. Even when the door closed to the rest of the world for two and half centuries during Edo period in 17th through 19th centuries, the people eagerly tried to learn something from other civilizations through a tiny window of an artificial island permitted to be visited by the very limited people from a couple of countries like China and Holland. Once Japan opened up the country to the world, things new to the people surged to them. Take top favorite foods of the Japanese today like Curry and rice, Shabushabu, Tonkatsu, Ramen, Gyoza, for example. Curry and Rice is said to have been brought to Japan by a businessman who liked it on a boat on his way to Europe, Shabushabu, originally with mutton in Mongolia sneaked in Japan via northern China or Korea, Tonkatsu, you may want to call it like Vienna Schnitzel. Needless to say, Ramen and Gyoza are definitely from China. Irrespective of their origin, they no longer look or taste like their originals. Japanese people have changed them little by little according to their taste and palate. In another word, they harmonized the original foods and cooking techniques with the Japanese traditional way. That is Washoku. In Washoku, consequently, new things from abroad is combined with the Japanese traditional foods and converted into something new by the Japanese traditional techniques. Japanese Ministry of Agriculture And Fishery was once going to issue the acknowledgment to the Japanese restaurants in foreign countries where they prepare and serve the genuine Japanese food, which was so controversial even in Japan when it was reported through medium. Actually, Japanese Government once gave up the idea and changed the acknowledgement system to recommendation system. However, I want those statesmen to look back the history of culinary culture of Japan that the people have formed and innovated through many centuries, especially the history of Washoku. |