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History of Meat Eating in Japan

　The history of meat-eating in Japan is generally considered quite mysterious.　Retracing its history, however, leads us to find it quite unique and interesting. It was only 18 or 19 centuries ago, sometime during 100s-200s AD when Chinese characters were brought to this country. Until then, they had no way to make documents of their life style, their own culture, or anything else, therefore, there are no written documents whether the people before the era ate meat or not. Compared to historical facts in other countries where they owned their own letters since ancient time, it seems to me that Japanese people might have not had good ability for keeping their documents.

　However, some archeologists have reported that people hunted wild animals in the field and caught fish and other mammals in the sea in ancient time. They found pieces of roasted or broiled bones and other remnants of the animals and fish in the archeological sites they had dug. Accordingly, during the period from 400BC through 200AD, it is thought that people kept hogs as their livestock. However, there is rather a long period for about 12 centuries when meat eating was banned by the commands of the emperors and also from Buddhism teaching which was imported from the Asian continent in the 7th century. This prohibition was implemented only among the Buddhist priests and people in high society in early years. Ordinary people, mostly farmers, who were not intelligent enough to learn imported cultures had no chance to learn about Buddhism yet. As it gradually infiltrated deeply into ordinary people such as farmers and merchants as well, they started to follow the teaching and began to avoid meat eating.

Prohibition of Meat-Eating

　Why did Buddhism prohibit people from eating animal meat? It was not only animal meat but the meat of all living creatures including fish and other sea food. It was and is the teaching of Buddhism not to take the life of any animal and living creature, which strongly influenced the dietary habits of most Japanese until the middle of the 19th century, when the western life style came into this country. The ordinary Japanese did not eat meat during this long period of time, except those who were privileged to eat the game animals and birds as medicinal eating. What an excellent excuse it sounds while most of other people were banned from eating meat! Generally, it is believed that the emperors who reigned one after another, since 7th century when Buddhism came to Japan, took advantage of the Buddhist teaching to keep and sustain the peace and stability of the nation. They did not want their people to eat animal meat and gain too much energy from it. They tried to oppress and tame their people to keep the peace and harmony of the nation. It is quite understandable that the emperors of those ancient eras took advantage of the Buddhist teaching to sustain the peaceful situation. However, there are some cultural anthropologists or historians who assert that people then used to beliebe the God of Agriculture would get angry if the farmers ate animal meat during the farming season, summer and autumn. They believed that God would set locusts free all over the farms in order to destroy all the crops and other farm products. So the emperors of the time prohibited people from eating meat only from April through September. it must have been good method to controle and discipline the farmers to keep them away from extravagant life. They were expected to work diligently and constantly in order to produce the necessary food not for the farmers themselves first but for their rulers of high society.
Whichever report may be true, it seems quite pity to us who can afford to eat any meat today, that most of our ancestors had never been allowed to eat any meat and that they did not know how it tasted for such long period of time. After the Chinese and the Westerners brought their food and cooking techniques to this country around mid-17th century, the Japanese were exposed to different types of meat. This was limited only to the very few people in the limited societies then.

Who Ate Beef First in Japan ?

Whether it is true or not, there is an interesting report that the person who tried beef for the first time in Japan was Oda Nobunaga, a provincial leading Samurai with great power in 17th century who tried to unsuccessfully unite Japan as a nation. He was betrayed and driven to the corner where he could not help committing suicide by hara-kiri by one of his retainers. However, the place where he built a beautiful and gorgeous castle of his own is right in the center zone where beef was and is recognized as the best in Japan even today. The beef from there is called Omi-beef. I am sure people living there then must have eaten some beef in a sly manner from time to time while it was banned, and they must have gifted Nobunaga with their delicious beef.

Opening of the Country and Meat-Eating

The Japanese people were allowed to eat meat freely after Perry came from America in black boats in order to force the Tokugawa Government to open their country to the world in 19th century. The feudal age of the Tokugawa Shogunate ended. Japan opened herself up to the world, especially to the western part of it. It started adopting new western cultures.
People then were so eager to grow as civilized people adapting the western style of dietary life. They ate meat timidly and gingerly at first and trained themselves to get accustomed to it.
Some superstitious people are said to have believed that they might have horns on their heads if they ate beef. Even after the meat eating was liberated in mid-19th century, the people in Japan did not eat much meat at a time and not frequently either.
Until recently, when many western type restaurants appeared and started serving many western dishes, the way the Japanese cooked meat was limited almost only to slicing it thinly or cutting it into small pieces and cooking it in the same way as they cooked seafood following their own traditional way. They had never experienced cooking a big lump of meat or even a whole chicken. I have often gotten a question from my students, “Why is Japanese meat all sliced thinly in the market?“
Meat in Japan is generally sold already cut and sliced according to the consumer’s needs and conveniences. And it is easier for the Japanese who eat food with chopsticks.

Meat Eaten in Japan

Beef, pork and chicken is most commonly available in most of the meat markets where the average Japanese people buy meat for their daily life. Small amounts of imported lamb and frozen whole turkeys are available only in big cities like Tokyo and only in selected shops. Japanese people are not accustomed to eating lamb or turkey. However, game animals are available during the hunting season. They are sold at selected meat shops and served at the restaurants that specialize in serving game meat. The popular game meat includes deer, wild boar, and bear. In some areas and at some restaurants, you may find horse meat served as sashimi and sukiyaki.
As an attempt to get the tender wild boar, a cross between a wild boar (inoshishi) and pig (buta) called inobuta is produced by some farmers. Hunters also hunt ducks and pheasants in their seasons. Some farmers produce a hybrid between the goose and the duck called aigamo. This meat is tender and flavorful, and may be used at some restaurants as a substitute for duck.
For the past 20 years, the consumption of meat in Japan has increased up to 3 times. It seems to be related to the economical prosperity of the country. It is reported that in China the consumption of animal protein has been drastically growing recently; it is clear the economical prosperity of a nation affects their dietary life. As Japanese eat more meat their cooking repertory expands.
Until recently, they cooked meat only in limited ways such as sukiyaki (pot cooking on the table) or curry and rice.
Nowthey enjoy it in many different ways such as shabu shabu, Korean barbecue, steaks, stew, roast beef or pork.

Whale Meat in Japan

Japan is one of a few countries where whale meat is eaten, not by its whole population but mostly by those in a few areas along the seashore where whales get close. This matter is very controversial in
the world these days. The whale is not a fish although it lives in the ocean. Unlike the meat of other mammals, whale is not handled like other meats. It is sold at fish markets together with fish.
It seems just a matter of transportation. Since it is hunted or captured from the ocean it is brought to fish markets. Living in a big city like Tokyo, we seldom have chance to see whale meat in fish markets, although there is a whale meat restaurant near our neighborhood.
Whale meat is no longer eaten as much as it used to after the World War II. The people of my age who entered primary schools in the year the war ended, were often fed with whale meat as school lunch. It smelled and tasted awful to me and I do not have good impression of it. The fresh whale meat looks just like beef but tastes fishy. I have not tried it since I was a child.
Actually,I had no idea whether whale meat is eaten casually in Japan these days until Sea Shepherds from Australia and a few more other countries appeared all of a sudden in the ocean and attacked the Japanese whale test hunting boats or visited a whale fishery village to protest against the whale fishery by the villagers.
Whatwe eat or do not eat is a matter of culture. I believe most of the people in the world agree. We could ask why the Australians eat kangaroos. We have no kangaroos in Japan. A small number of them are kept in zoos or children see them in animal picture books. They are lovely animals and not the animal for us to eat. But we would not even ask the Australians, Why do you eat kangaroo meat, simply because we believe it is their own culture to eat it.

Last summer, I visited a small island in Nagasaki which is known for the history of hidden Christians. Surprisingly, I found a museum building in which both the culture of whale fishery and hidden Christianity were shown in the same museum building. Both cultures are quite important for the residents of the island.

Beef

　One of the questions I always receive when I start a new cooking class for foreigners each year is why the beef in Japan is so expensive. There are several reasons.
First of all, the Japanese appreciate very tender, well-marbled beef and consider it the best.
They describe the tenderness as "so tender that it almost melts on our tongues." I was very much surprised when I first saw a portion of fillet which was beautifully marbled. The cattle raisers in Japan even try to marble the fillet. They also like the flavor from the marbled fat. Marbled beef is tender and it is fat that gives special flavor. In order to obtain this well-marbled meat, there is the legendary story of how these cattle are raised by hard-working women.
Many beef cattle used to be raised in twos and threes by farmers. Since pastureland is limited in Japan, they kept the cattle in barns most of the time giving them less exercise for softer muscle and feeding them well for fattening.
They said the daughters of the farmers even massaged the cattle to promote marbling and make the muscle tender, and hopefully to sell them at the highest possible price, so that their parents were able to buy good, expensive furniture when they got married.
It is true that farmers feed the cattle with beer and massaged them. Whether you believe it or not, the cattle love beer. They get relaxed after drinking some beer just like us. When they get relaxed, they are massaged so that the fat spreads all over their muscles.
Farmers have to pay big money to buy an offspring of the expensive cattle which have an award record and certificate with nose print. This definitely helps to boost the beef price.
In daily life, the Japanese did not eat beef as often and in the quantity as the Westerners do.
So, even if the beef is marbled and fatty, the Japanese had fewer health problem until recently. Actually we could not eat much of fatty marbled beef, we are satisfied with a small amount of it.
In Japan, beef seems more popular and better in the western part of the country like Kyoto/Osaka/Kobe (Kansai) area. Famous beef such as Kobe beef, Matsusaka beef, and Omi beef are also from this area.

Personally, like many others in the Kansai area, I recommend Omi beef as the number one beef in Japan. Quite recently it was reported on TV that Shiga Prefecture where Omi beef is produced began selling their proud Omi beef to Singapore and Thailand with the support of the lady Governor and the top ranked restaurant chef in Kyoto. My worry is that the price will grow higher and higher.
Today, after a long negotiation between governments, beef is imported from other countries much more freely than in the past. Domestic and imported beef is sold at the same place. How can we tell the difference? The price tells it definitely.

Pork

Although the Japanese abstained from eating meat in general for hundreds of years until mid-19th century, there are no social and religious restrictions over pork eating. Although pork is not eaten as much as in China where, when they say 'meat', it means pork, the Japanese have developed several good recipes for pork like tonkatsu (deep-fried breaded pork cutlet) and shoga-yaki (sautEed pork with ginger flavor).
The hogs raised in Japan today are mostly from the U.S. and Europe, and are fed with imported feed. So they should taste more or less the same as those in the U.S. and Europe. For many years, we have seen the pork labeled kurobuta (black hog) in Japanese at meat sections of food stores. The pork is the meat of hogs that actually have purely black fur. The meat is tender and tasty however you may cook.
Even if it is cooked in strongly flavored curry, you surely can tell what it is.
As mentioned elsewhere, for those epicureans who try to eat something different, a hybrid between a pig and a wild boar is raised to keep the flavor of a wild boar with the tenderness of pork. At home, we often do one-pot cooking with pork slices and leaf vegetables and eat it with soy sauce and rice vinegar. It is simple and delicious.

Tokyo X

Whether you believe or not, this strange name, Tokyo X is a brand name of pork raised in Tokyo, not in skyscrapers, but in pastures. Tokyo is a big city, but only a small part of the prefecture. The city area of what is called Tokyo 23 wards (Special District) is only 1/3 of whole Tokyo prefecture. The There are some plains and farming area and pastures as well. When I found this pork with this strange name, I promptly asked a sales lady of the meat shop, What is Tokyo X? She answered proudly, It's the pork raised in Tokyo and we are very proud of it . Why not try it? I could say Tokyo X is the pork from which all the negative characteristics of pork have been eliminated.
The meat isso tender, juicy, and tasty, good for Tonkatus, breaded pork, Ginger Pork, and of course Shabu Shabu.

Chicken

Chicken and I
The readers of this manuscript might question my cooking ability if I say I do not have a good impression of chicken and it is not my favorite bird meat. Why? When I was a child, I used to live with my grand-mother in the country. She kept some chickens in the yard to get eggs every morning. The chicken egg was an important source of protein in my childhood. Five or six young chickens in different colors were kept in a cage most of the time, but grandma let them out of the cage for exercise when the weather was good. She said that it was my duty to bring them back to the cage in the evening. The chickens were not wild but they did not listen to me. They were so disobedient to me.
I was not patient or sweet to them, either. I got mad at them, fought with them, and did not like them at all. Moreover, grandma did not like to see me get mad at her chickens and gave me a hard time. When any of her chickens no longer laid eggs, a young man in our neighborhood would come and help to prepare them, one after another, for special dishes on special occasions. Out of curiosity, one day,
I watched carefully how the young man prepared the poor chicken. I got sick. At the same time I felt so sorry for the chickens I had been fighting every day; I could not eat their meat.

Chicken in Japan:
Whenever it is in a big shop specializing in chicken or a chicken section of a supermarket, there are always several different kinds or brands of chicken these days. In addition to regular broiler, they now have free-range chicken, chicken of special brand (local species); grown up to 35-day olds, and 100-day olds. Broiler chicken today tastes just about the same as you eat in the States. The original breeding hens are from the States, are kept in the same air-conditioned houses as you may find in Maryland, and are fed with the feed mostly imported from the Mid-West.
The Japanese are taking care of them, which does not affect the taste of chicken. Free-range chicken and chicken of special local species are usually kept a little longer than broilers and fryers.
Their meat is slightly firmer in texture but richer in flavor and more expensive.
In Japan, chicken meat displayed in a store's showcase is usually separated into parts such as breast and leg and thigh with or without skin and with or without bones, fillet, drumstick, and wing. Breast and leg and thigh meat is cut into even smaller pieces for the sake of convenience in Japanese cooking. Ground chicken, liver, gizzard and egg yolk from hen s ovary duct are also available at markets. Beautifully prepared whole chicken is also available. In the past, the crest was used to treat a child who wet the bed, but it is no longer these days. Feet are mostly exported to China where young ladies love them.

Keiko Hayashi