Japanese Cuisine Ethnography
Japanese cuisine ethnography is one of the world's few excellent cultures today. Their kind of feeds has received a lot of attention. Some of their distinguishing characteristics have been their feeding habits. This has shaped the most significant part of their legacy and is thought to be unique. They made it onto the UNESCO list due to their food habits and feeding style. The following is a list of the world's most intangible cultural heritages. The agricultural sector has made significant contributions to the realization of this dream. In most areas, they have named for Japanese culinary culture. The Japanese cuisine is one of the few cultures that have apprehended. This kind of food culture has been respected and appreciated by many people. Above everything, it has been a source of enjoyment to those who have ever tried to take it. It has emerged to be a unique ability for the Japanese.
The food culture for the Japanese has been improving daily in most cases. This has made it not to be near extinction in the world record. It has been able to thrive since it was first introduced. The restaurants from almost all part of the country have showcased these products. Most of them have been locally made and have become items of specialty. They have been viewed as some of the fantastic products in the countryside and the great cities of Japan. In this country, the view of delicious food has been taken very differently. They have taken it as an inalienable right instead of just being seen as a national pastime and some sort of big business. The way the Japanese do their eating habit has become more of a ritual. The presence of special utensils and tableware has made it to be extensive. The manner by which they share their meals and the level of hospitality has been great and more than special. They have ensured that their meals become social and communicating rather than just eating. Everything about this food culture is just special. Several scholars have developed interest in knowing more about this kind of culture. They have perceived its specialness in a way that has brought about much delight. They have desired to know much about. The paper looks into cuisine and identity within the Japanese ethnography. The food culture with regard to food in Japan similarly brings nationalism, patriarchy as well as moral standards among the people of Japan. Through embracing various food products that are used in the entire Japanese culture, the citizens improve their moral standards as they are abiding by what their culture requires in terms of their eating habits. Also, the paper looks into the importance of rice within the Japanese culture. Most of the people in Japan consume rice as their staple food. Rice is culturally binding the people in Japan. For that matter, the paper majorly looks into Japanese ethnography with reference to food items being used in Japan.
Cuisine and Identity in Contemporary Japan
It evident that food was something that was all rounded but was not been taken as something mundane and really concrete. This is something that people will grow, prepare, buy, savor and even eat almost every other time. However, no one has overseen this and thought about food as something of social, historical and cultural importance (Tse 89). Through their research, food is something that depends on these frameworks and that understanding the food culture of the Japanese society is a key thing. Tse (67) puts it clear than the cuisine and other kind of foodstuffs has been a source of attention attraction in Japan. The way it is connected to the style of living of the Japanese has been highly advertised in the country. This has also included the culinary choices and cultural identity. These features have been seen as a source of link to most of the things in Japan. They have been able to connect the economic class with aesthetic taste and also cultural prestige and social power. All these have been tightly packed in the contemporary society of Japan. This phenomenon has proved the self-constructed nature of the Japanese cultural uniqueness.
Nationalism, Patriarchy, and Moralism
Hirata (78) talks about the government of Japan had organized campaign on the matter of welfare of people in Japan. This campaign was meant to educate the Japanese on the issues of food culture. Apart from this reform, there were many others that were carried by the government. These other reforms had increased prevalently. They were therefore seen as a corrective which welcomed the neo liberalism in the system of agro food.
Hirata (451) also demonstrates how these government reforms never increased the regulation and oversight. They also failed to address the problems that faced the food system in the country fundamentally. It also asserts that these reforms never met their goals which included public health and safety of food. However, these reforms were juxtaposed by the view or issue that the domestic roles were left for women and that the traditional family had idealized the Japanese food. Hirata (467) shows how much the perception of food as an individual problem led to irresponsible behaviour in the nation as well as insufficient awareness on several issues concerning the Japanese food culture.
Sushi
The work of Sakamot & Allen (34) describes the sushi as one of the foods majorly used in by the Japanese. In their work, the two have tackled so many issues at once concerning sushi. The issues that are clearly outline are the culinary nationalism, soft power cultural diplomacy and globalization of sushi. It is evident that the sushi has grown to become one of the products that are known globally by the transnational market. Sakamot & Allen (11) seek to identify some of the sushi that has been imported to Japan through a reversed way. These include the spider roll and California rolls. Once in Japan, they have been known as the genuine American Sushi.
Sakamot & Allen (91) attempted renationalize sushi as one of the food products that valued in the Japanese culture . This is seen from the vernacular media to the state of the Japanese. It is argued that a sense of national pride can be created by reporting popularly on the overseas sushi boom (Sakamoto & Allen 34). This is when we consider a situation where 'they' eat 'our' food. This shows that the position of the state is a more strategic one. This is seen in the way it operates which is with a clearer motive. Through this motive, the sale of the Japanese food to overseas has been mobilized.
The Importance of Rice to the Japanese Society and Culture
Eyjófsdóttir (13) talks about one of the staple food for the Japanese. The main type of food which is valued in the Japanese culture is rice. The fact that rice has an impact on the society and culture of Japan is making the most of the Japanese culture to be unique . The Eyjófsdóttir (34) gives the origin of rice and its development since it was first cultivated in Japan. Throughout its introduction to the economy, it has had some impacts on the morals of the Japanese.
The origin of rise and how it reached Japan gives Japanese to have appropriate cultural background on rice as their staple food. This led to the start of a concrete society. How rice became a staple food for the Japanese is certainly an essential issue that enriches the food ethnography of the Japanese. The time period has also been indicated showing that Japanese food culture promotes the use of rice as a major product . The growing of rice made this nation to be one of the homogenous. Those who found themselves out of the group were highly discriminated. Eyjófsdóttir (19) further asserts that the use of rice also affected the religious belief of the Japan. They highly believed in the influence if Shinto which was perceives to be more important.
Cultural Interactions of Japan and USA
According to Laemmerhirt (201), the cross cultural interactions between the United States and Japan promotes the food cultural practices in Japan. Laemmerhirt (91) asserts that there is a serious relationship between these two countries. Laemmerhirt (92) asserts that there is always the rising of the term globalization wherever the people from the West exchanges their culture with those from the Eastern side. Laemmerhirt (56) also equates the term globalization to cultural imperialism and cultural homogenization. However, this has led to many issues since some people have tried by all means to criticize it. The cultural interaction between the United States and Japan has grown to be a contemporary one (Laemmerhirt 90).
Laemmerhirt (12) also considers the use of transnational exchange of culture as one of the issues that promotes modernism in a society. It asserts that it is through it that Japanese were introduced to this culture of valuing their food. It is also through it the people of the United States were able to have access to sushi. It evident that different cultures can characterized by the eating and cooking practices. They will play an important role in making these cultures unique hence can be distinguished from each other in a special way. The issue of food being an indicator of where we come from, who we are and what we desire to be in the future. The frequent flow of people can be attributed to mass migration seen transnationally.
The Foods of the Worlds
Zhang (67) explores various issues that are related to strategic communication perspective for the Japanese people. Most of the communication perspectives in most of the communities entails appropriate planning and the maps used to be used in the communication arena. The issue of Gastrodiplomacy Champaign that has been conducted in various countries shows that ethnography of very country differ from one place to another. Most of the countries where such research was done include Malaysia, South Korea, Peru and Japan. Through this, the real purpose for the study established that various countries differ in their . Some of them involve the terms to do with naturalness, exoticism, mysticism and healthiness among the people of Japanese (Zhang 20). In order to ensure that this research was successful, there are some strategies that were used so as to bring about cultural practices of the Japanese people. This includes the membership relations in the products that are produced most of the marketplaces in Japan. The other thing used within the research certainly was the opinions that arose from several leaders from Japan. The tactics used in the campaign has also been clearly brought out was similarly employed within the research.
Conclusion
In recap, the use of food in Japan has been viewed differently by many scholars. The food culture in Japan has been evident as one of the special ones. It has emerged to be outstanding in different phenomena. Several people have given out their own views on the same. This ranges from its positive to the negative perspective. Knowing how the Japanese value their diet has been a special story with much importance. It is therefore of great help if one knows about how other people see their cultures. It is also evident that different people have different cultural preferences. The way the food culture has affected those from other countries during interaction time has been seen to be more fantastic information. It has therefore provided a way forward which is the best way to go.
Work Cited
Eyjólfsdóttir, Ólöf. “Rice: More than a Meal. The Importance of Rice to the Japanese Society and Culture.” (2013)..
Ferguson, Priscilla Parkhurst. “Culinary nationalism.” Gastronomica 10.1 (2010): 102-109.
Hiroko, Takeda. “Delicious food in a beautiful country: Nationhood and nationalism in discourses on food in contemporary Japan.” Studies in Ethnicity and Nationalism 8.1 (2008): 5-30.
Hiroko, Takeda. “Delicious food in a beautiful country: Nationhood and nationalism in discourses on food in contemporary Japan.” Studies in Ethnicity and Nationalism 8.1 (2008): 5-30.
LaemmerhirT, Iris-Aya. “Imagining the Taste: Transnational Food Exchanges between Japan and the United States.” The Japanese Journal of American Studies 21 (2010).
Sakamoto, Rumi, and Matthew Allen. “There’s something fishy about that sushi: How Japan interprets the global sushi boom.” Japan Forum. Vol. 23. No. 1. Taylor & Francis Group, 2011..
Tse, Yu-Kei. Watching Foreign TV in an Age of Online Sharing: The Cultural Implications of Cross-border Television Experience. Diss. Goldsmiths, University of London, 2016.
Zhang, Juyan. “The Food of the Worlds: Mapping and Comparing Contemporary Gastrodiplomacy Campaigns.” International Journal of Communication 9 (2015): 24.
