Abstract
Modernization has drastically affected home cooking in Japan over the 20th and 21st centuries. Initially, the Meiji Restoration (1868–1889) triggered vast social changes and the first significant shift towards urbanization. However, the most critical and enduring changes were wrought over the intense period of growth post–World War II from the 1960s into the 1980s. Changes in how Japanese people lived, worked, and ate were considerable. Modernization and the advent of chemical preservatives, artificial flavorings, and processed foods effectively brought about the decline in simple, ingredient-driven traditional Japanese foods. And the shift from rural to urban living quarters undoubtedly precipitated the current day reliance on convenience foods and an eroding appreciation of Japan’s native cuisine, colloquially known as washoku since 1929.
If Japanese food tastes good, Japanese will eat it and if Japanese food is easy to prepare at home, they will prepare it. Japanese have great pride in their foodways, but pride does not equal reality. Foodways have not been passed on in modern generations so Japanese are relying on premade or takeout foods for at least part of their daily meals. Nonetheless, the straightforward dishes that rural Japanese prepared from the foods they foraged, fished, hunted, or grew from the 20thcentury are still attainable, even for urban-dwelling Japanese. These dishes merely rely on thoughtfully cooked rice, small maker soy products, and seasonality: sourcing vegetables and fish when they are plentiful and affordable. Perhaps prioritizing well-cooked, delicious rice and returning to seasonality, as well as a vegetable-, fish-, and soy-based diet could stem the deterioration in home cooking in Japan.
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