Japanese Diets

In the best of times, the Japanese have always had a variety of foodstuffs from which to choose, both from the land and sea. Of course, one's diet depended to a great extent on social class. As those considered samurai could range in means from very poor to very rich-and thus experienced diets that crossed classes-we'll examine some generalities.

Rice
Unsurprisingly, rice was a staple food, and was so important as to be considered a measure of wealth. Farming in Japan has never been an especially easy affair, and the life of a farmer could be a difficult one indeed. Much of Japan is mountainous, and yet even after the land was unified under the Tokugawa, each province needed to have some rice-growing potential. A few areas were idea and by …show more content…
In a particular pinch, the Buddhist/Shinto injunctions that tended to prohibit the eating of meat could be lifted, allowing the hungry to catch pheasants, wild geese, quail, deer, and boar. Soldiers under siege, when hunger became as dangerous a foe as the enemy, often killed and ate their horses. Nonetheless, the eating of red meat did not become common until the Meji Restoration - and then only amongst the upper classes. Fifty types of plant were available to facilitate cooking, such as daizu (soya) and azuki sasage (red beans); flavorings included sake, shoyhu (soya sauce), imported pepper and rice vinegar, as well as kelp (kombu). Vegetables were often prepared with a great deal of oil and this style of cooking was known as shojin ryori and involved soya, sesame, and camellia. Salt, important for the preservation of fish and other foodstuffs, was a vital commodity, and may have been a factor in the warlord Takeda Shingen's invasion of coastal Suruga Province in