Rediscovering Japanese Cuisine

When you know the food of a place, you can understand its local culture. That is the philosophy of FOOD NIPPON, an event that takes place at the restaurant HIGASHI-YAMA Tokyo in Meguro, that aims to rediscover the cuisine of Japan.

FOOD NIPPON digs deep into the cuisine of each Japanese region that has been passed down for generations, and creates a space rich with opportunities for new culinary experiences. HIGASHI-YAMA Tokyo celebrated its 20th anniversary in 2018, which was also the 150th anniversary of the start of the Meiji Period, when the city was renamed Tokyo. HIGASHI-YAMA Tokyo was therefore chosen as the spot to celebrate the origin of Tokyo Cuisine.

The Edo period covered 265 years, from when Tokugawa Ieyasu started his Shogunate (a military government) in 1603. Moats spiraled around the city, with the Edo Castle at its center. This was useful for both water transport and defense, and it was around those moats that towns developed. This is the reason that Tokyo has been called the ‘City of Waterways’.

As Edo entered the 18th century, the population grew into a global megacity, with over one million people. These people had gathered from every part of Japan, bringing the cuisine from their own regions. Interaction between these people and culinary fusion gave birth to the unique mix that forms Tokyo cuisine.

Edo cuisine can be said to be a culmination of food from across Japan. This included the sea that provided a wealth of seafood and the enormous fish market in Uo-kashi, Nihonbashi, as well as the spread of katsuobushi (dried bonito flake), dashi with mirin (rice wine), and dark soy sauce of the Kanto region.

The four main cuisines of the Edo Period, during which a dining out culture prospered the most, were sushi, tempura, soy-sauce broiled eel, and soba noodles. These were all popular for common people to have as a light meal at a roadside food stall. From this, izakayas (Japanese bars), where customers could sit and dine, and tea houses began to gain popularity. This led to the appearance of high-class restaurants with fancy gardens. Cultured people who spoke in sophisticated and fashionable language, such as scholars and artists, would go to these restaurants, which became a place for socializing.

Among these restaurants was one of the most famous in Edo, Yaozen, which has appeared in paintings by Utagawa Hiroshige and Utagawa Kunisada. The base of their cuisines was a style where multiple dishes would be served called honzen ryouri, developed during the Kamakura and Muromachi period.

While keeping this style of serving multiple dishes one by one, Yaozen standardized the Japanese-style banquet by incorporating elements of fucha ryouri (Chinese-style vegetarian cuisine), shippoku ryouri (Japanese-Chinese cuisine), and kaiseki ryouri (a multi-course Japanese meal). The restaurants innovative and uncompromising spirit of cooking played an enormous role in forming the cuisine of Edo as the pioneer of luxury restaurants.

Around that time, there were stories that showed the restaurant’s popularity; they bid the highest price ever on an auction for hatsugatsuo (the first bonito fish of the season), a thing that was cherished among the people of Edo. A banquet would also include a series of several dishes, and in the end, food such as tsukudani (preserved food boiled in soy sauce) is served on the lid of an inkstone case, which the guests can bring back home.

At HIGASHI-YAMA Tokyo, the food culture of the Edo Period has been passed down for over 300 years through long-established restaurants, and the lifestyle and culture of the people of Edo is expressed in the FOOD NIPPON special dinner.

As a testimony to the elegance of the menu, choices include hatsugatsuo loved by the people of Edo; tempura skewers that were popular at the street stalls in old Edo; Edo-style yanagawa nabe made with conger eels instead of loaches, served since the Edo Period to escape the summer heat; and the inarizushi that was popular among the common people. Moreover, Tokyo shamo, tsukudani, and fried eggs are placed beautifully in a traditional inkstone case and served — a modern rebirth of Edo cuisine, as pleasing to the tongue as to the eyes.

The food presented on the case lid can be taken home. Sake also comes with the meal, including Kenbishi, a popular choice enjoyed by the eighth Shogun Tokugawa Yoshimune, as well as other varieties such as Oimatsu and Masamune.

The charm of old Edo is told through the carefully selected food, alcohol, and crafts. FOOD NIPPON unravels the complexity of the cuisine that still exist today.

Edo was renamed Tokyo in 1868, the start of the Meiji Period that ushered in lifestyle changes through the modernization of Japan. Japan started to incorporate aspects of western culture, including a new era of cuisine. This undid over 1,000 years of a meatless diet. Other than wild boar, the people of Japan hardly ate any meat until the government started to recommended it.

To lessen the strong aversion to beef, a beef stew prepared with miso was created to match the familiar boar stew of the time. This stew became popular in the Asakusa neighborhood of Tokyo as “the taste of cultural enlightenment,” and was the origin of sukiyaki.

Besides beef stew, the Meiji Period was the birth of wasei youshoku (Japanese-style western cuisines), which includes many dishes popular today, such as pork cutlets, curry rice, rice omelets, and croquette — although it was originally only the upper classes who could afford such cuisines.

The Great Kanto Earthquake struck Tokyo in September 1923. Neighborhoods were destroyed, and the Uogashi riverside fish market in Nihonbashi was moved to Tsukuji. Cuisine continued to evolve with growing prosperity as the nation modernized. Western dining, which was separate from authentic western cuisine, also became popular. This included the birth of western-style eateries and cafes. Japanese people incorporated imported ingredients and foods into familiar recipes, inventing new meals that fit well with the staple food of rice.

Twenty years later, Tokyo underwent another change as city neighborhoods were burned to the ground from air raids during World War II. Black markets popped up around Tokyo, where the selling and buying of food helped people survive the extreme food shortages at the time. Urban planning later took care of these black markets, but some of the bars and alley ways still exist today, telling the memories of the hard times that the people of Tokyo lived through.

The Tsukiji fish market was shut down in October 2018 after 83 years of history, and moved to Toyosu. From its start in the Edo Period and the cultural enlightenment of the Meiji Period, to its repeated rebuilding from the Great Kanto Earthquake and the air raids over Tokyo, the “Kitchen of Japan” here in Tokyo has experienced so much and overcome so many hardships.

The cuisine of Tokyo has evolved with the changing times. It has been influenced by every region in Japan, as well as by foods from around the globe. Even in our fast-paced world with day to day changes, some flavors remain unchanged, while others evolve. The cuisine of Tokyo, that continues to change with the city, becomes more fascinating the more we know about its background. It is an important piece of culture connected to our future.