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Discover Japan!

Food

The birth of a unique Japanese style of Western cuisine

Japanese cuisine is booming beyond Japan’s borders, and Japanese restaurants have been built in New York, Paris, London, and cities all over the world. It enjoys great popularity thanks to its reputation as a healthy style of eating, a characteristic that is owed to the integration of Japan’s distinct four seasons into its cooking. Since ancient times, the Japanese have nurtured techniques for creating cuisine that is in harmony with the region and season, using seasonal ingredients, varying the flavors, and giving careful thought to color. A hybrid Western cuisine that adopted the Japanese essence then gradually emerged during the Meiji Period. This took form, for instance, in the use of Western ingredients seasoned in a Japanese style, or Japanese ingredients given Western flavors. For the Japanese, these creations, which include ‘omurice’, (which combines chicken fried rice with a French omelete and tomato sauce), and ‘napolitan’, (Italian pasta dressed in tomato sauce), are long-established favorites of Western cuisine, although they are in fact uniquely Japanese dishes that can not be found in the countries from which the original recipes originate.

 

Brand new innovations in cuisine

Since the Western cuisine that had been imported in to Japan could be enjoyed only in restaurants and hotels by the wealthier classes, it was originally an unobtainable luxury for the common people. Around 1880, a string of Western restaurants were opened in partnership with common people, and when Western cuisine became available at an affordable price, it also gathered attention in magazines, and people were ntroduced to the culinary techniques of the West.

As not only flavors, but cooking utensils became easy to get hold of, Western cuisine started to appear on the dinner tables of the masses. This included curry, originating from India, which was added to Japanese-style rice, and served on one plate as ‘curry rice’. During the early Showa Period, bread, which had been introduced to Japanese together with Christianity during the Sengoku (Warring States) Period, was filled with curry and fried in oil, giving birth to ‘curry pan’. Through this innovation, bread ceased to be considered only as a baked product. Amongst the other bread products born in Japan is ‘anpan’, which is baked with a filling of red bean jam.

 

Fashion

The kimono: embodiment of the unique spirit of Japan.

The kimono is an example of Japan’s traditional culture. Complementing the features and build of Japanese people, the kimono is not only beautiful in appearance, but also ideally suited to the climate of Japan’s four seasons, and in harmony with the Japanese lifestyle. In order to avoid wasting material, kimono were originally made from one piece of fabric. The use of sashes and strings for fastening (rather than the buttons and clasps of Western clothes) the ease of adjustment and tailoring, and suitability for many years of regular use make kimono much-loved items that embody the distinct Japanese spirit of respect for resources that is passed down from one generation to the next. Since the Meiji Period, Western culture has spread to costume too, with Japanese people moving away from kimono and zori (traditional footwear), to Western-style clothes and shoes.

 

Japanese fashion exported around the world

Zori, the footwear worn in Japan since ancient times, are the ideal complement to kimono. The original model of the flip-flop, which is popular not just in Japan, but all over the world, is said to be a zori with a thong . The mainstream of today’s flip-flop designs feature a wealth of colors and patterns, made from water-resistant vinyl or plastic. They are worn not only at pools and beaches, but are also a type of everyday casual footwear that is popular amongst young people. As with zori, their complementing of clothes such as jeans has made them an indispensable summer fashion item. Jeans, which started life as work clothes in America, are another item of clothing that is highly popular in Japan, particularly amongst the youth. When these spread to Japan in the 19th Century, vintage jeans soon surpassed brand new pairs, thanks to the strong sense of character in their used and worn appearance. Jeans with faded colors and frayed areas that gave them the worn look started to be produced in Japan, imbuing them with a completely new and innovative element that had not existed before. This transformed look of jeans born in Japan spread around the world, and has enjoyed enormous popularity.

 

Culture

The miniature foreign countries born in Japan’s ports

By treaty with various countries in the 19th Century, fixed-period foreign settlements were established around such open ports as Nagasaki, Kobe and Yokohama. The government permitted the residence of foreigners around Japan’s open ports, establishing them as trading districts. As if they had long been in anticipation of the demise of the over 200 year-policy of Sakoku (Locked Country), Western traders that had been living in the foreign settlements such as those in Shanghai and Hong Kong flooded to Japan in search of further trading opportunities. Modern municipal facilities that did not exist in Japan before such as sewers, plumbing and city streets were constructed within the foreign settlements, and residences, trading houses and consulates were built on these foundations. Many traders built houses with expansive verandas on the hillsides that looked out over ocean. On level ground, Western-style towns were built, housing churches, hospitals, and leisure facilities such as hotels and clubs, creating miniature foreign countries around the open ports.

 

The spread of Western architecture beyond the boundaries of the foreign settlements

After the government entrusted the foreign engineers employed in the settlements with the task of modernizing the municipal infrastructure of Tokyo’s Ginza district, Western architectural culture soon spread out of the settlements and into every region of Japan. Furthermore, the emergence of the foreign settlements was to become a profound stimulus for the Japanese master carpenters of the age, and it is said that some enrolled in apprenticeships with foreign engineers. Observing the Western structures of wood and stone, each took away ideas from the foreign settlements, and went on to create a completely new and uniquely Japanese style of architecture that fused the Western image in to Japanese constructions. The characteristics of this can be seen in the shape of the roofs (built in the Japanese style seen in temples and shrines) and the make-up of the walls (rather than wood and stone, these were built by lining up rectangular flat tiles, which were then covered in plaster, followed by a layer of namako-kabe, a traditional finish with an outstanding resistance to fire and damp). Through this process of altering the form, a new breed of buildings which featured a blend of Japanese and Western styles spread to very region of Japan.

 

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