Rice as Staple Food for the Japanese:

　People in general never finish talking about food in Japan without mentioning rice. They understand that rice is staple food of the Japanese.  What is staple food, by the way?  According to Dr. Ishige Naomichi, one of the most prominent Japanese cultural anthropologists, the concept of staple food exists only in rice-growing countries such East and Southeast Asian countries including Japan.  He says that there seems no equivalent words in European languages to indicate what ‘staple food’ means in Asian countries. Some might say “Bread.”  But, it is nothing more than one of the foods served on the table together with other food like meat, fish, vegetables and so forth.

　 In the Asian countries where rice is grown, their meals generally are composed of two major groups of food: staple food and side dishes.  Where this concept of a meal prevails, the staple food of their meals is rice.  Dishes of meat, fish, and vegetables are something to help and encourage the people to eat and enjoy rice as mush as possible.

　The English word ‘rice’ is used irrespective of whether it is cooked or uncooked.  The Japanese word for uncooked rice is “kome” where as the word for cooked rice is “go-han.” The word, go-han, is also to mean a meal. Rice is important as staple food to the Japanese to such a degree that, when they say go-han, cooked rice, they also mean a whole meal.

Type of Rice:

　Rice available in the market is roughly categorized into two groups. One, called Indica, is long-grain, and the other called, Japonica, short-grain rice.

　Long-grain rice is dry and does not get sticky at all when cooked.  On the contrary, the short grain rice gets sticky and flavorful when cooked.  The rice the Japanese grow and eat is short-grain rice.  It is the most suitable type for sushi.  Without this type, sushi would have never existed.  

History of Rice in Japan:

　Nobody knows when and how rice was first brought into this chain of islands of Japan.  Like most other food, it is certain, however, that rice was also brought in from elsewhere.  Archeologists report that, in very early days of 300 BC through 300 AD when mostly people originally from north lived, there was no rice.  Archeologists, speculate, however, that, from the relics discovered in southwestern part of Japan, rice was likely to have been brought in by people from southern Asian people who came to this country via eastern coast of China and southern shores of Korea.  On the other hand, botanists have genetically traced the origin of the rice down to some place in southern China, near the foot of the Himalaya. As many people from the southern Asia, like those from the delta of the Yangtse River moved up towards north by trade wind, rice is also thought to have been brought in by those people via similar route. Some even say that, when the nomad from China came to these islands seeking grass feed for their livestock, they brought rice with many tools for their daily lives in the new country. 

　At any rate, it took several hundreds of years before some of these people had settled down in certain areas and started to plant short-grain rice in paddy fields. In Japan, rice seeds are sewn in rice beds to get seedlings. After they grow about a foot long, they are transplanted to rice paddies that are filled with water.  Since more than 80 percent of this hilly and mountainous country was covered by forests, farmers had to spend many years to develop flat paddies that can be filled with water during the growth stage of rice after transplantation. Needless to say, irrigation system using water from mountains was developed, but the climate that brings much rain during rainy season and following hot summer sunshine also helpful. Until convenient machines were invented for transplantation, weeding and harvesting, farmers had to work extremely hard on their rice farm.  Between their busiest seasons like between transplantation,weeding and harvest, they had recreation like Bon dance we see today.  After harvest, they also had various festivals thanking god of agriculture.
　In the meantime, farmers and scientists also spent many years to improve rice by crossing different types and species to obtain the rice that Japanese like best  as well as to gain higher yields..

　Until the end of the Edo period, rice played an important role to measure wealth.  The land owners collected rice from tenant farmers to pay taxes to Daimyos, feudal lords, who supported the Edo Tokugawa Shogunate.　 The ranking of Daimyos was determined by the size of the land that was translated into the output of rice from the land.  Samurai, warriors under Daimyos were paid their salaries by rice.  Depending on the sizes of rice salaries, Samurais were able to retain different sizes of followers.

　Although the feudal system has no longer existed after the Meiji Restoration in 1868, large landowners still owned large pieces of their own land until the end of the World War II.  It was only after General MacArthur performed the land reform when the small tenant farmers were able to own the land that they cultivated and grew rice every year.  Rice is so important to the lives of the Japanese, so the business of rice has been controlled by the government one way or another during the past century.

　Rice was rationed during and after the War.  Then, Farmers Cooperative Society, Nokyo, was organized to control production and sale of rice including price.  Rice farming is still subsidized by the government.

　It is only recent that the farmers and Nokyo were able to start selling some particular branded rice that the people are willing to pay higher prices for their choices than the standard ones.  Also, in 2007, due to recent excessive inventories of quality rice following people’s recent diversified dietary habits that helped reduce consumption of rice, the government permitted export quality rice to China, where the new rich who like Japanese rice can afford expensive imported rice from Japan

　Another aspect of rice to the Japanese life is that rice has closely tied to the Imperial family.  The Emperor plants rice himself in the rice paddy in the Imperial Palace Yard, harvests rice himself and offers the first crop to god of agriculture as well as his Ancestors, i.e. some 125 past Emperors; the origin of the Japanese Thanksgiving Day (no longer a national holiday).

　As sushi has become so popular, more people now enjoy the type of rice the Japanese like.  In addition to selection of a right rice, how to best cook it is also quite important.  This unique way of cooking rice is one of Keiko’s beginners’ class musts.

   Keiko Hayashi