CRAFTSMANSHIP AND THE MATERIAL CULTURE OF JAPANESE FOOD
Barbara Curtis Adachi, B.A. 18 1 0 Jackson St. (#5), San Francisco, CA, 94109 Tel. (415) 775-9841 Fax (415) 474-25 1 0 Research done during 50 years' residence in Japan Just outside a famous kabayaki restaurant on the fringes of the Tsukiji wholesale produce market in Tokyo, I watched an apprentice remove a wriggling 14-inch unagi from a plastic bucket and throw it to his boss, the restaurant's chef. The cook grasped the writhing creature, pinned its head fiercely to his oak cutting board with a swift jab of a sharp steel unagi pin, and filleted the entire length of the fresh-water eel with a swift swipe of his knife. After gutting the eel in one sweep, he tossed the fillets into a bamboo basket and caught the next eel. In about 30 minutes, he had prepared 100 fresh-water eels (unagi) ready to be skewered for the day's luncheon crowd. The master kabayaki chef broils the eels over charcoal, fanning the coals with his bamboo-and-paper fan in one hand and, between turns of the skewers, slapping the fan smartly against his other hand. The familiar snapping sound always has me salivating for this delicious Japanese taste treat of succulent, delicate broiled eels known as kabayaki.
In this one preparation, handcrafted board, pin, knife, basket, skewers and fan are used. The cook had been trained almost two years to use the Tokyo-style eel knife, the large blade hand-forged in Tokyo, the pin in Sakai, once famous for samurai swords, now for knives. The board came from the north. Here is an eel pin, and here a Nagoya-style eel knife, smaller than the Tokyo blade and forged in Sakai.
To understand the strong connection between craftsmanship and the culture of Japanese food, we need to know some of the historical developments that created the relationship, how it developed and why the craft-kitchen-table connection persists in 1999. Similar connections exist in other cultures, but contemporary Japanese crafts pieces made of natural materials for kitchen and table and combining utility and beauty seem a world apart in quantity and quality from the cooking and table items of France or those produced in the United States, by American architect and designer Michael Graves, for instance.
Even today, hundreds of thousands of anonymous Japanese craftsmen and craftswomen1 produce beautiful and useful items for cooks and diners. Bamboo rice paddles, copper graters, pottery teacups, lacquer trays and many more such products are sold in department stores, crafts centers and neighborhood shops. Demonstrations by craftsmen draw tremendous crowds at department stores all over Japan. A potter molding tea cups at his wheel, a knife-maker fastening wooden handles to carbon-steel blades, the makers of bamboo steamers or chopsticks, the brush-maker binding together reeds for cleaning graters, the maker of wooden soup bowls working at his lathe, the copper-worker making graters - these men and women work before crowds who exclaim over their skills, ask questions and buy their wares.
Each year 5 million people flock to southern Japan for the Arita Ceramics Fair to buy porcelain; the Mashiko Pottery Fair draws 2 million to the famous town near Tokyo. There are dozens of other such fairs.
The line between arts and crafts has always been ambiguous in Japan and it was not until the end of the 19th century that the need for a distinction between artist and craftsman led to the creation of a word for what we call "fine arts" and of another word for handmade pieces incorporating utility, i.e., crafts. Today, well over one hundred specified traditional crafts are practiced by some 300,000 craftsmen all over Japan. They and their apprentices, sometimes sons or daughters, walk proudly in the path of tradition, using techniques of past generations but incorporating slight changes to methods or designs learned during arduous apprenticeships.
Some 5000 craftsmen are placed on regional lists as having special skills. Some sign their works; many prefer to remain the traditional "unknown craftsmen." Since 1955, about thirty men and women comprise a list of traditional craftsmen singled out by the government for the lifetime designation of "holder of an important tangible national cultural asset", popularly known as a "living national treasure." Although lists honoring craftsmen reinforce the national respect accorded crafts, there are mixed feelings on the part of the public and craftsmen themselves about designating craftsman by name. Shoji Hamada, the famed potter of Mashiko, always insisted on being called a shokunin (craftsman) since he disliked being singled out as a "treasure," artist, or even artist-craftsman. He never signed his pieces, only the paulownia boxes in which some were sold.
The crafts of the material culture of food in Japan may be categorized according to the materials: (See photos)
|
| (earthenware, stoneware, porcelain) |
| (woven strip, cut culms) | |
| (cedar, elm, oak, other) | |
| (cast-iron, forged carbon-steel, copper, etc.) | |
| (trays, soup bowls, sake cups) | |
| (silk, hemp, other plant fibers, cotton) | |
| (washi, made of plant fibers and barks) | |
| (reed brushes, sharkskin graters, vines baskets, rice straw articles) |
These crafts may also be distinguished by use (preparation, storage, presentation, dining) or shape (crock, jar, ewer, pot, dish, bowl, tray, etc.) (Handout #3).
Since earliest Japanese history, ceramics, lacquer, bamboo, wood, and textiles have had important roles in the material culture of Japanese food. Museums have pots dating to about 8,000 BC, iron pieces of early centuries. Later came forged carbon-steel, porcelain and glass; aluminum and plastic hit the kitchen in this century. As Japanese householders age, many yearn for hometowns in the widely recognized fukuro (mother) syndrome, nostalgia for Mother's home cooking. This interest in natural materials and simplicity in food and utensils is catered to by craftsmen, publishers and television programs. Plastic palls beside the warmth and innate beauty of handcrafted articles of clay, bamboo, wood and lacquer.
An ordinary Japanese kitchen is apt to contain all or some of the equipment and utensils listed on Handout #2, many items the products of craftsmen. Someone interested in food and cooking will have additional special usage items (see Handout #3, Categories).
To understand the remarkable and sophisticated development of utilitarian as well as decorative crafts in Japanese food culture we must of Japan take careful note of the historical and cultural elements that contributed to that evolution. They include the following:
| 1. | Rice culture The development of wet-rice cultivation (introduced in the Yayoi Period, 300 BC - 300 AD) led to cooperative labor since sowing, transplanting, irrigation and harvesting rice require group work. Rice has a near-sacred place in Japanese thought: precious, and symbolic, it is epitomized by the emperor's yearly ceremonial planting and harvesting of rice at his palace. Rice yield once defined land value; bales of rice represented tax units. Rice culture requires special implements and vessels, usually pottery or iron, for storing seeds, rice grains, cooked rice and sake and for cooking. The single annual rice-growing season in much of Japan allowed farmers time to develop skills as craftsmen during the winter, leading to the growth of rural crafts using rice-straw, vines, bamboo and wood. | ||||||||||||
| 2. | Feudalism is another important element. Kyoto was the capital from 794 and for five centuries was the seat of the imperial court. Kyoto's crafts industry provided for the official needs of the emperor's court, the government, the aristocracy and officials. The sophisticated court life described in the famous 11th -century novel, The Tale of Genii, required fine handcrafted dining implements and elaborate clothing. Military rulers moved the capital to Kamakura , taking craftsmen with them but the court, which remained in Kyoto, and townspeople kept many Kyoto workshops busy. Craftsmen refined skills and artistry there and in other urban centers as power shifted in and out of Kyoto for several centuries. New uses for indigenous materials and new tools were devised. Craftsmen made their own tools or adapted those of toolmakers to suit their physiques and methods. Tools are still considered extensions of the hands and legs, and in many crafts, feet, ears, cheeks and mouth are also used. With the introduction of feudalism in the 13th century, craftsmen were supported by the lord of the area. By the end of the medieval period in the late 16th century, towns, with strict social stratification, had grown up around the castles of the daimyo, the lords of some 200 (eventually 500) fiefdoms or areas. Craftsmen produced pieces for the lord who provided their livelihood and fumished their materials, products that reflected the daimyo's tastes as well as those of the ruler of the nation since daimyos were required to present gifts to emperor or shogun. The trousseau of the daimyo's daughter included elaborate lacquer bowls and cups while the daimyo's gift to the shogun would be the finest example of locally produced lacquerware. Craftsmen made simpler articles for the people of the castle towns (250 such towns in the 1700s). Samurais, merchants, craftsmen and artisans made up the population of these towns which became production and distribution centers and open markets for the region. Rural crafts developed independently but daimyos encouraged distinctive local industries, urban and rural. When the shoguns made Kyoto the capital again in the 15th century, central Japan was racked by political turmoil and civil war. One of the great anomalies of cultural history is that in the upheaval, the burning of Kyoto, fighting and destruction elsewhere were accompanied by outstanding artistic and technical advances in all the crafts. Courtiers demanded ceramics, brocades, glittering lacquer boxes. The shogun held tea-ceremony parties using fine porcelains and bamboo vases against the background of a city in flames. Banquets and poetry contests were held despite the chaos. Craftsmen refined their skills to astonishing levels. With the unification of the country in the early 1600s, the seat of government moved north to Edo and shoguns of the Tokugawa ruled the land. Many craftsmen moved to Edo (Tokyo) from Kyoto and elsewhere during the Edo period (1603-1858). Edo's population grew, craftsmanship developed apace with a flavor distinct from that of Kyoto and Osaka. Castle towns became cities. Urban dwellers could now buy handcrafted products which grew in quality and variety because townspeople's tastes and needs differed from and their affluence surpassed those of their social superiors. There were notable advances in ceramics, lacquer and textile artistry. Feudalism came to an end in 1868 with the restoration of the emperor system and the end of 250 years of rule by the Tokugawa shoguns. Emperor Meiji was put on the throne in Edo, renamed Tokyo. Under the Tokugawas, Japan had existed in isolation from foreign influences, even China and Korea, because emigration, immigration, visits from foreigners and travel outside Japan were prohibited. In the ensuing Meiji period, American, British and European industrialists, technicians, and scholars were recruited. Handcraft industries were modernized, especially porcelain, lacquerware, silk, tea and textiles. Spinning and weaving mills were opened in the 1880s but textile handcrafts expanded after World War I and grew tremendously in the late 1950s throughout Japan. The same is true of pottery and kilns. Since the 1930s many ceramics have been mass-produced in factories, but since the 1960s, the number of working kilns producing handmade pieces for household use has increased enormously to keep up with demand. Since samurai were forbidden in 1871 to wear the two swords and the top-knot that distinguished them as a class in feudal culture, swordsmiths forged other items: knives, scissors, carpentry and other tools. The makers of cast-iron sword hilts turned to crafting water kettles for tea ceremony and cooking-pots for rice. Most craftsmen's skills were diverted into producing items for everyday use by townspeople. Some samurai, with no daimyo to fight for and none to support them, became craftsmen. | ||||||||||||
| 3. | Regionalism, the third element contributing to development of crafts, must be considered alongside feudalism. (See handouts: 2 maps.)
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| 4. | The national isolation of Japan during the Edo period (1603 -1868), gave Japan time to digest, adapt and refine foreign influences and to develop many indigenous crafts techniques. Skills and artistry reached peaks and an indigenous Japanese aesthetic developed. | ||||||||||||
| 5. | In addition to a rice-growing culture, feudalism, regionalism, and national isolation, other important influences on Japanese aesthetics include:
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| 6. | The sixth influence on the development of crafts in Japan is that of folk art (mingei). Japanese craftsmen traditionally used techniques aimed at bringing out the best qualities of natural materials indigenous to their areas. Particularly from the 15th century and on through the Edo period (1603-1868), they produced a variety of attractive functional pieces appropriate to dining on floor-cushions at low tables, eating with chopsticks and cooking at wood- or charcoal-fired stoves. The increasing affluence of the merchant class and urbanites enlarged the market for craftsmen and encouraged competitive techniques and artistry. With more ingredients and cooking methods, demand increased and standards of living rose. Kitchen utensils and table implements continued to evolve in the 20th century, particularly stimulated from about 1930 by the folkcraft movement's emphasis on crafts combining beauty and utility. Soetsu Yanagi, a philosopher, was the founder in 1924, along with Mashiko potter Shoji Hamada and others, of the mingei (folk art) movement. It became influential after World War 11 when the dearth of imported materials made people revert to simple household articles made from indigenous materials, such as split bamboo pot scrubbers, simple pottery teacups and cooking pots, and vine baskets. Mingei proponents and artisans espoused anonymity, functionality, and simplicity as a corrective to the industrialism, increasing affluence and westernization. Robust, simple, utilitarian ceramics like the early rustic Korean bowls, the aesthetics of which opened Yanagi's eyes and greatly influenced his tastes, were encouraged. Folk art objects were never the works of the unskilled amateur but of professional artisans using available inexpensive materials to make in quantity articles for everyday use in homes and kitchens. Mass production by hand is admired since true skill is required to shape teacups or weave bamboo tea strainers by the hundreds or thousands to exact specifications. The mingei mantra of the combination of utility and beauty in pieces used daily has greatly influenced the direction of craftsmanship in Japan and tapped into the public's dormant desire for pieces that reflect nature and provide beauty in everyday life. Acknowledgement that the use in the kitchen of an item made by hand by a dedicated craftsman adds a special dimension to the preparation and consumption. food is now widely articulated. | ||||||||||||
| 7. | And, finally, the limited variety of indigenous produce has also influenced the course of material culture:
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Here, take a minute to imagine the sound of silver or stainless forks and knives used on pleasingly rough pottery dishes compared to the sound of chopsticks used with identical pottery.
Since the general aesthetic was to balance forms, colors and table settings appropriate to the season - lacquer soup bowls with maple-leaf patterns in October, cherry blossoms in March - potters, artisans of lacquer, bamboo, and wood vied to meet the demand for appropriate containers. The Japanese "obsession with seasons" continues unabated today.
Before closing, I'd like you to recall an oft-quoted remark by Ben Thompson, the renowned architect and founder of Design Research which greatly influenced Americans' ideas about and access to good design. "Life is too short to be surrounded by ugly things," he said. "The objects we use everyday in our homes, in our kitchens should be beautiful." He inspired many to look to Japan for good design and beauty in everyday objects.
In 1999 in the United States, it is hard to find good, handcrafted objects made for the home that incorporate beauty and utility, basically because we lack a living tradition and strong aesthetic that emphasize the importance of having such pieces constantly in our lives. It is easy to find attractive, useful crafts pieces for kitchen and table in Japan.
I hope that even this short survey of Japanese cultural history conveys something of the richness of Japanese crafts and the respect and care with which they are produced and used in Japan. When you use a lovely pottery teapot, a bamboo basket, a pretty porcelain bowl, a lacquer tea caddy, smooth cedar-wood chopsticks, use them with love for their beauty and with respect for the craftsman who made the piece. Remember that it represents a long and respected tradition of work with the hands. You too will find that the hand of the craftsman touches the heart of the user.
ENDNOTES
1 The majority of workers in Japanese crafts are men. I use the generic "craftsman" and "he" throughout.
2 Earlier crafts history is here omitted but was also important in the Asuka and Nara periods (552-794).
LIST OF ARTICLES ON DISPLAY
Chopsticks:
| * Metal for use in hot oil, arranging raw fish |
| * Wooden (thick for mixing tempura batter, other for serving it, for cakes); general kitchen chopsticks, |
| * Bamboo |
| * Lacquer |
Handout #2
JAPANESE KITCHEN CONTENTS
An ordinary Japanese kitchen is apt to contain all or some of the following equipment and utensils:
| * Knives (hocho): probably the trio of deba, nakiribocho, and sashimi slicer, as well as a fruit knife, a paring knife and a knife storage rack. Knives usually carry the incised name of the knife-maker. |
| * Rice cooker: probably electric; no longer a cast-iron (kama) or aluminum pot, and a ceramic jar for storing rice |
| * Rice serving tub, wood, bamboo or lacquer |
| * A chopping board (manaita), cypress considered the best |
| * Several rice paddles, bamboo, wood, lacquer or ceramic |
| * A variety of kitchen chopsticks, other with which to eat (wood, bamboo, metal, lacquer); chopstick holder (ceramic, wood or bamboo); chopstick boxes (husband-wife set, wood, bamboo or lacquer, and individual ones for children, wood, bamboo, plastic) |
| * Chopstick rests, ceramic, bamboo, wood, lacquer, silver |
| * Hot water kettle, aluminum or cast iron |
| * A colander and strainers, bamboo |
| * Corrugated grinding bowl and pestle for miso; ceramic storage bowl |
| * A cast-iron and a ceramic pot for cooking at table, often electric today |
| * Metal pan for deep frying |
| * Steamer, bamboo or aluminum |
| * Broiling rack for fish, probably another for toasting rack for seaweed, rice cakes, etc., metal |
| * Skewers, bamboo and metal |
| * Sesame seed roaster, ceramic or metal |
| * Miscellaneous cooking pots |
| * Wooden "drop lids" for cooking pots |
| * Ladles (otama), wood, bamboo, shell attached to wood, or aluminum |
| * Graters (oroshigane), ceramic, copper, bamboo, for daikon (Japanese white radish) and for wasabi or ginger |
| * Flexible bamboo mats for rolling sushi; similar ones in frames on which to place cold buckwheat noodles |
| * Individual soup bowls, lidded, ceramic or lacquer |
| * Individual rice bowls, occasionally lidded, ceramic or lacquer |
| * Large individual bowls for topped-rice dishes or hot noodles, lidded |
| * A variety of small bowls, dishes, small plates of different sizes and shapes for vegetables, pickles, etc.; ceramic, lacquer, bamboo, wood or glass |
| * A large serving plate or several, ceramic, perhaps one lacquer |
| * Toothpicks, wood or bamboo, and toothpick holder, wood, bamboo or lacquer |
| * Tea cups, without handles, probably some small, some more mug-sized, for different types of green tea |
| * Teapots, ceramic, various sizes |
| * Cotton towels for wiping hands (oshibori), pot holders, squeezing liquid out of cucumbers, grated Japanese radish, grated ginger, etc. |
| * Sake servers and cups (tokkuri, choko) |
| * Trays, wood, lacquer, bamboo, aluminum, plastic |
| * Pot for making or storing pickles, ceramic, glass or plastic |
| * Paper fan for cooling rice for sushi |
| * Vegetable peeler, international or traditional type |
| * Lunchboxes for adults, children and perhaps a lacquer box for special foods (New Year's, festivals, etc.) |
| * Shaver for dried bonito to use for stock, now less used since shavings are sold packaged |
GENERAL LIST OF MATERIALS USED IN CRAFT ITEMS OF THE MATERIAL: Culture of Japanese Food
| Ceramics | earthenware, stoneware, porcelain |
| Bamboo | |
| Wood | cedar, elm, oak, other; |
| Metal | cast iron, carbon-steel, copper, silver, other |
| Lacquer | wood or fabric base |
| Textiles | hemp, silk, cotton, other |
| Paper | plant fibers, barks |
| Glass | |
| Other | rice straw, vines, reeds |
CRAFT ARTICLES OF THE MATERIAL CULTURE OF FOOD IN JAPAN MAY BE CATEGORIZED BY (1) SHAPE AND CONTENTS (2) USAGE
STORAGE: jar, crock, ewer, bowl, cask, bottle, ewer, tub, box, bag, etc.
| seeds | pottery jar |
| rice (grains | pottery jar (komebizu) |
| rice (cooked) | lidded wooden container (shallow tub w/copper hoops |
| woven bamboo container | |
| lacquer container | |
| shallow tub for sushi | |
| wrapped in bamboo leaves (for sushi) | |
| tea leaves | pottery jar, paper lid |
| lacquer tea caddy, tightly lidded | |
| decorated tin caddy, tightly lidded | |
| water | large open-mouthed pottery jar |
| porcelain jar w/cover for tea ceremony | |
| cast iron jar w/cover for tea ceremony hot water | |
| miso (bean paste) | |
| pottery jar | |
| beans | textile (hemp-fiber "linen" cloth) bag |
| oil | pottery jar |
| pottery bottle | |
| tofu | wooden tub, round or rectangular, lidded |
| soy sauce (shoyu) | porcelain bottle |
| pottery (earthenware, stoneware) bottle | |
| porcelain cask, occasionally with spigot | |
| wooden cask, occasionally with spigot | |
| small covered ewer, porcelain; pottery | |
| rice crackers (sembei | |
| pottery jar, lidded | |
| salt | woven bamboo basket, triangular and hanging over sink |
| pottery jar, lidded | |
| sakÚ | wooden cask, made by copper |
| stoneware or porcelain cask | |
| stoneware or porcelain ewer, bottle, big or individual size | |
| hip flask: ceramic, Okinawan | |
| shoyu | storage kegs, bottles, cruets, individual pourers |
| pottery, porcelain, wood, lacquer | |
| pickle pots | crocks, bowls, covered jars/cups (pottery) |
| long-term, in miso, sweetened soy source or nuka (bran) | |
| overnight ichiyazuke, pottery crock with weight | |
| sugar | pottery jar |
STORAGE
For specific usage only:
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pottery box for pickled herring (pottery) of Aizu-Hongo (northern), length of average herring small pottery containers for salted and lightly pickled fish offal, pickled sea urchins, etc. pickled onion pot pickled daikon pot |
KITCHEN(cooking) OR TABLE USE (not storage)
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Teapots Ceramic: pottery and porcelain, many shapes Never cast iron which is used only for hot water copper or silver (unusual) Tea cups no saucers, no handles small and janomi (larger) bowl or deep, wide cup for tea ceremony Coasters for tea cups, wood, lacquer or bamboo Soy sauce pourers, table and individual; dipping dishes, individual ceramic Sakò ewers, jars, bottles porcelain, stoneware, lacquer, metal, glass Sakò cups porcelain, stoneware, lacquer, metal, wood (usually cedar, square) Sakò jars/bottles, jugs and pourers ceramic lacquer, wood, metal (silver, pewter), glass Bowls, for miscellaneous kitchen use: ceramic wood pouring bowl (pottery) kneading bowl (noodle or dumpling dough) cooking bow (casserole type, donabe like for chirinabe) pottery, cast iron grinding bowl (suribachi), pottery, for miso, beans, sesame seeds, etc. Rice cooking pots (kama) cast iron with wooden cover ceramic (stoneware), not used today Rice paddle (shamoji) for serving cooked rice bamboo, wooden, ceramic, lacquer Chopsticks, vary in material and size according to usage metal, bamboo, wood, lacquer, silver, other metal kitchen (saibashi) for picking up, mixing, beating wooden tempura, mix batter (thick, wood) metal, working with tempura in oil serving tempura, wood serving raw fish, metal serving cakes, bamboo, wood serving and/or arranging other foods, wood, bamboo, metal charcoal, metal place and move in brazier Chopstick-related items chopstick rests: ceramic, bamboo, copper, sharkskin, aluminum boxes (often for two pairs): wood, lacquer Oshibori (wet towels) & oshibori holders Graters: ceramic, bamboo, copper, sharkskin, aluminum Dried bonito-fish shaver (for flakes [katsuobushi]) wooden plane attached to wooden box |
SPECIAL CERAMICS (used in Kitchen and at Table )
Strainer for miso, pottery
Toasting pan for sesame seeds
Bowl for grinding sesame seeds
Grater for daikon (Japanese long white radish)
Grater for ginger
wooden shallow container, with copper hoops, to cool sushi rice
Dining
Rice bowls, pottery, porcelain or lacquer
Noodle bowls, pottery, porcelain soup bowls, usually lidded
Pottery, porcelain or lacquer
Domburi bowls, pottery, porcelain or lacquer
Tea bowls for tea ceremony
Pickle bowls, individual or table, pottery, porcelain
Covered jars/cups for miscellaneous foods, usually unlidded
Cups for sauce for cold buckwheat noodles (soba)
Condiment dishes, compartmentalized, for seasonings for noodles
Dishes cooked at the table
OTHER UTENSILS, IMPLEMENTS
Paper-and-bamboo fan
for increasing fire in charcoal brazier for general cooking
for increasing heat of charcoal gril for yakitori (grilled
chicken), kabayaki (grilled eel or unagi), etc.
for cooking sushi rice
Ekiben pottery, porcelain containers for box lunches sold at stations
SPECIAL MATERIALS FOR SPECIAL ITEMS
Rice Straw
Bamboo
Wood
Cast iron
Forged carbon steel
Lacquer (much used in Japan; used some in SE Asia, China, Korea)
Paper
Glass
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Maps of Japan Handouts #4
Maps of Japan Handouts #5
