Kyoto Cuisine and Japanese Food Culture

Kyoto has a history and tradition of more than 1,200 years since Heiankyo, and a food culture unique to Kyoto that has been nurtured in an environment of an inland basin away from the sea. Since the transfer of capital to Heian, the cultural involvement of public houses, samurai families, priests, and monks has influenced the lives of Kyoto people, and various dishes have developed over time.

Since the transfer of capital to Heian, Kyoto has a long history of layered public family culture and townspeople culture, and has fostered a unique city culture, so there are many festivals and events throughout the town. There are meals to be eaten on Halle’s day and simple daily meals as a sign of people’s lives and as an expression of the spirit of the townspeople.

In Kyoto, the usual dish of “what to eat on what day” of the month has become established. Not only did this regularly provide the nutrients needed by the body with cheap foods, but it also had the role of reaffirming the days today, tightening one’s feelings, and improving one’s life. It can be said that it is the wisdom of life based on rationality.

In Kyoto, side dishes that are usually made at home are called “obanzai” or “surroundings”. “Obanzai” is a combination of abundant and nutritious Kyoto vegetables, soybean products such as tofu, dried foods, and salted foods, based on good soup stock. It is still being made as a home-style taste in Kyoto that you will never get tired of eating every day.

Agriculture
Agriculture has been formed over many years with the involvement of local nature and humans. Kyoto, which has prospered for many years since the Heiankyo era, is located far from the sea, making it difficult to transport marine products, and growing vegetables was important for maintaining the diet of a large city.

Especially in Kyoto, excellent vegetable seeds and production techniques are gathered as gifts to the imperial court from all over the country and mainland China, and the development of shōjin ryō by many temples and shrines has also influenced the tradition of tasty vegetables. Has been cultivated.

Local production for local consumption is an initiative that not only consumes locally produced products locally, but also connects producers and consumers with the produced agricultural products through local activities. In recent years, with the growing awareness of safety and security for agricultural products and the diversification of sales, expectations for “local production for local consumption” that connects consumers and producers are increasing.

In Kyoto city, a wide variety of vegetables have been cultivated and inherited in the land and climate from ancient times, and these vegetables with excellent nutrition are important ingredients that support the food culture of Kyoto as “Kyoto vegetables”. It has become.

Vegetables cultivated in the climate of Kyoto have been produced during the season. However, in recent years, a large amount of vegetables have entered from remote areas and overseas, and consumers are less likely to be aware of the season of vegetables. Originally, it is said that it makes the most sense to eat local foods in the season and is good for your health.

market
The Central Wholesale Market is a public wholesale market that collects a large amount of fresh food, which is indispensable for the diet of citizens, from all over the world as well as Japan, and sends it to the kitchens of citizens.

Kyoto City Central Wholesale Market Daiichi Market is the first central wholesale market in Japan in 1945. In addition to agricultural products (vegetables / fruits) and marine products (fresh / processed), pickles, dried foods, boiled vegetables, and birds It is a general market that handles meat, chicken eggs, etc., and is a kitchen for about 2.6 million people, mainly in Kyoto city and surrounding cities, towns and villages.

In addition, Kyoto City Central Wholesale Market No. 2 Market is the cornerstone of meat distribution that provides stable supply to citizens after collecting and slaughtering beef and pigs from all over the country.

Kyoto cuisine
Kyoto cuisine is the name of a genre or brand in the cuisine served as Japanese cuisine. It is a sophisticated light-tasting dish that makes the best use of the taste of ingredients such as vegetables, dried foods, and processed soybean foods, and it is generally thought that it is a dish that you can enjoy with all five senses, including not only the taste but also the appearance and atmosphere. ing. Due to its geographical background, Kyoto lacked fresh marine resources such as Osaka, and the development of cooking techniques to make the most of simple ingredients was seen. Kyoto, which has prospered as a capital since ancient times, has developed a culinary culture as a food center of Japan along with Osaka. Kyo-ryori has developed by incorporating the characteristics of various cooking methods as the center of Japanese culinary culture, starting with large-scale cuisine based on Chinese cuisine, through shōjin ryō and kaiseki cuisine, until encountering Western cuisine. .. Therefore, Kyoto cuisine may be regarded as synonymous with Japanese cuisine.

Eiichi Takahashi, the owner of the Kyoto Kaiseki restaurant Hyotei, defines “Kyoto cuisine as a fusion of professional cuisine, devoted cuisine, kaiseki cuisine, and obanzai.” Kenichi Hashimoto, who is also the owner of the Kyoto restaurant Ryozanpaku, defines it as “kaiseki, which is the basis of Japanese cuisine, with the ingredients, characteristics, climate, and climate of Kyoto added.”

Yoshihiro Murata makes Kyoto cuisine a local dish, but stimulates foreign techniques such as traditional dishes that Kyoto people call “side dishes”, Showa dishes that transcend traditional boundaries such as duck roast, and French cuisine. It is classified into three types of dishes that have been received.

Feature
Ota Nanpo is a kyoka song in his book “One Story One Word”, which describes the characteristics of Kyoto as follows. “Water, mizuna, woman, dyeing, misuya needle, temple, tofu boiled, eel conger, matsutake mushroom”

This is quoted and modified from “Old Fun Sho” written by Danjuro Ichikawa II in 1742 (Kanpo 2nd year), but the number of foods compared to that of Osaka and Edo in the same book. It can be said that it has been known as a famous food producing area for a long time. In addition, the water flowing through the Kamo River and the tofu and mizuna made from that water were known as Kyoto’s specialties, as in Takizawa Bakin’s “Takizawa Bakin” and “Horikawa no Mizu”. Rosanjin Kitaoji, who was one of Japan’s leading chefs, wrote about the background of the development of Kyoto cuisine in his book “Rosanjin Art Theory”, “Kyoto had the emperor’s palace for a long time. There were few marine resources to be prepared. Even under these circumstances, Kyoto chefs needed to moisturize the mouths of aristocrats and prestigious people. ”The development of delicate and artistic cuisine of Kyoto cuisine. Was derived from such a land pattern.

Compared to general local cuisine, Kyoto cuisine has an extremely large number of actions from preparation to finishing and serving. In addition, the taste and appearance are two sides of the same coin, and there is a tendency to emphasize the appearance of food.
Features

Caterer
Food delivery is a service that delivers food and drinks such as dishes provided by restaurants to customers who want them. It is sometimes called catering, and will be explained together. Delivery is the business of delivering food cooked in stores to customers who wish to have it, and its origins date back to the middle of the Edo period.

Delivery by a store that does not have a dining space in the store or by a store-less business operator is often called delivery, but it is not possible to make a strict distinction. Similarly, the delivery of Japanese lunch boxes and sushi used for celebrations and ceremonies is often called “catering,” but this too cannot be strictly distinguished.

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In the case of “delivery”, it is often required to deliver a relatively small quantity in a hurry, and there is also a difference that “catering” and “delivery (such as cake)” require a reservation or a large order quantity. ..

A similar service is catering. Catering is cooking on-site using a kitchen prepared by the orderer or a mobile cooking car. “Delivery” and “catering” are decisively different in that they deliver the finished dish, but there is no particular legal difference in Japan.

Obanzai
Obanzai (obanzai, dinner, obanzai) is a word used to mean prepared foods that have been made in ordinary households in Kyoto since ancient times. The character “ban” has the meaning of “regular use and also a word for a little gift. Bancha, bancha, etc.” (Kojibayashi). Originally, it is not limited to Kyoto cuisine, but in the menu collection “Yearly Bansai Roku” published in Kaei 2nd year, “Kanto is called a side dish at a private house, and we collect daily menus for chores in Kansai. Rare dishes and expensive dishes are not used as bansai, so I will use them as seed books when I am stuck in the thoughts of a woman who does not have a wife, “and lists 119 kinds of menus. However, in reality, Kyoto citizens rarely use this phrase and simply call it “side dish”. The reason why it spread like the Kyoto dialect is that from January 4, 1964 (Showa 39), the Asahi Shimbun Kyoto branch serialized a column titled “Obanzai” that introduces Kyoto’s home-cooked food. .. Even at the time of the serialization, few locals used this phrase.

It refers to traditional Kyoto dishes that are made as home-cooked dishes. Kyoto cuisine prepared by a chef who specializes in training is called “Kyoto cuisine” and occupies the standard position of Japanese cuisine in various parts of Japan, but such appearance is emphasized and elaborate dishes Is not generally recognized as an obanzai.

Generally, the side dishes in Kyoto are lightly seasoned like Kyoto dishes, and most of them are simmered with dried bonito, kelp, and shiitake mushrooms. Leafy vegetables and root vegetables in the suburbs such as so-called Kyoto vegetables are boiled with fried tofu, or after boiling, water-soluble kudzu powder and potato starch are added to make kudzu. Since the soy sauce used is light, the color is close to the color of the material. However, there are also salty, dark-colored home-cooked dishes such as kelp boiled in soy sauce called salt hump.

Grilled food is basically the same as what is generally recognized as Kyoto cuisine, even if it is a side dish at home, but because it is inland, fresh seafood was rarely used in traditional home cooking. Marine fish mainly used salt fish and dried fish carried from Wakasa on the Saba Kaido, and freshwater fish caught in rivers and ponds near Lake Biwa and Kyoto.

In recent years, it has become more popular due to its healthy image, and more and more stores are selling it at side dish stores and offering it as a signboard menu at restaurants. However, small restaurants in Kyoto City often offer dishes that are recognized as “obanzai” by other regions, even if they do not bother to display it as “obanzai” for tourists.

Kyoto sweets
Kyogashi is a Japanese sweet from Kyoto. A general term for confectionery used for events and ceremonies in the palace, public houses, temples and shrines, and tea houses.

Kyoto vegetables
Kyoto vegetables are Kyoto specialty vegetables that are produced in Kyoto Prefecture and create the atmosphere of Kyoto. The definition of Kyoto vegetables is ambiguous and has not been clearly defined. It is a general term for items whose varieties have been established in Kyoto, or items produced by Kyoto’s original production technology, but in some cases, it also includes lily roots, which are rarely produced in Kyoto Prefecture. Generally, vegetables introduced into Japan after the latter half of the Meiji era are not included, and vegetables such as taro and radish that were introduced to Japan from China and the Korean Peninsula by the 5th-12th centuries are targeted as Kyoto vegetables. However, in some cases, Manganji taro, which was produced by crossing with overseas varieties in the 20th century, is included. On the other hand, there is also the view of Kyoto City that not only traditional vegetables but also all vegetables made in Kyoto can be regarded as Kyoto vegetables in a broad sense.

Compared to modern hybrid varieties, Kyoto vegetables are not as convenient for wide-area distribution in terms of productivity and shape standards, so production decreased in the middle of the 20th century, but varieties were investigated and preserved by Kyoto Prefecture and Kyoto City. Production and consumption have expanded since the 1990s due to the promotion of Kyoyasai and Kyoto vegetables. According to a 1990 survey, Kyoto vegetables are richer in vitamins, minerals and dietary fiber than general improved varieties. The Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries of Kyoto Prefecture sets the 15th of every month as Kyoto Vegetable Day and conducts PR activities. In addition, the Kyoto vegetable test has been held since 2008. Other such traditional vegetables include Naniwa vegetables in Osaka prefecture, Yamato vegetables in Nara prefecture, and Kaga vegetables in Ishikawa prefecture, and attempts are being made to preserve them in various places.

Kyoto pickles
Kyoto pickles are pickles made from vegetables produced in Kyoto Prefecture, and are registered trademarks of the Kyoto Prefecture Pickles Cooperative Association (No. 5009700, No. 559699 for “Kyoto Tsukemono”). Salted pickles, kasuzuke pickles, miso pickles, etc. began, and rice bran pickles appeared in the Edo period.

The development of pickles in Kyoto is due to the fact that, as represented by Kyoyasai, it was a land where high-quality vegetables can be caught, and that Kyoto originally had excellent preservation techniques. It is said that local pickles from all over Japan continued, just as the pickle culture flourished in Kyoto.

Kocho style
The kitchen knife ceremony is a ceremony performed by a kitchen knife master, which has been handed down since the Heian period. Wearing an eboshi, a hitatare, or a kariginu, sit in front of a cutting board, hold a knife in your right hand, and chopsticks in your left hand, without touching the ingredients directly. It is said that it dates back to the early Heian period (around 860), and the secretary of the ceremony established a ceremony for food by the order of Emperor Seiwa in the first year of Jōgan (859), and established a ceremony called a kitchen knife and a kitchen knife. According to the Japanese cooking method encyclopedia written by Taijiro Ishii, the knives of the knives (how to arrange the flesh after cutting the fish) began because Fujiwara no Yamakage made a knife for the carp. In addition, Emperor Kouko is said to be an emperor who loves cooking and holds a kitchen knife himself and incorporates the kitchen knife ceremony into the Miyanaka event.

João Rodriguez, who came to Japan during the Azuchi-Momoyama period, described “arching, kicking, and swordsmanship” as the “noh” (practical culture) that the ruling class should acquire in his book “History of the Japanese Church”. It was once commonly practiced in various parts of Japan, and is still used today at the Tsushima Shrine in Aichi Prefecture and at the Ukehi Shrine in Hamashima Town, Shima City, Mie Prefecture. ) Fish (Uo) ”It is held in various places such as Shinto shrines. At first, the event was only for Miyanaka, but it spread to the samurai family from the time of Kamakura to the Muromachi period.

Kyoto ramen
Kyoto ramen is a general term for ramen that is provided and consumed mainly in Kyoto City, Kyoto Prefecture, Japan. Ramen is popular in Kyoto, and according to the town information magazine “Leaf” targeting Kyoto and Shiga prefectures, as of 2013, about 50 stores are opening annually. Kyoto ramen is characterized by its rich and rich soup. According to the Shin-Yokohama Ramen Museum, Kyoto ramen originated from a stall started by Xu Yongbo from Zhejiang Province, China in 1938 near Kyoto Station. This person opened the “Shinpuku Saikan” in Takakura, Shimogyo-ku, Shimogyo-ku, east of Kyoto Station (commonly known as Takahashi / Takabashi), and continues to this day.

After that, ramen with pork backfat sprinkled on the surface of the soup spread from “Masutani”, which was founded in 1949, and became another style of Kyoto ramen. It is called “backfat ramen” or “chacha ramen” (named after the appearance when sprinkling backfat). According to essayist Atsuhiko Irie’s “Only Kyoto people know”, “Kyoto ramen is the richest in Japan.” Founded in 1971, “Tenkaippin” is characterized by its rich chicken glass soup, which is hard to call soy sauce ramen, but it has grown into one of Kyoto’s leading ramen chains and has stores all over Japan.

As for noodles, many are straight noodles with little brine. In addition, it is said that it has a weak presence and is too soft. Irie considers this in the “Ura Kyoto Test” because it is premised on eating with rice. The area around Ichijoji and Higashioji in Sakyo Ward is said to be a “ramen fierce battlefield,” “ramen highway,” and “ramen street,” and many stores are competing with each other. In “Leaf”, Fushimi Ward is also a fierce battlefield.

Kyoto restaurant
In Japan, “restaurants” first appeared in Kyoto, but the age and detailed location have not been identified, and what can be confirmed is near Toji Nandaimon around 1403 (Oei 10). There is a penny that appeared in. It set up a simple assembly-type shop and served cheap tea to visitors by standing, but it is believed that this became popular and developed into a Monzen teahouse, which became the prototype of the restaurant. .. In the early Edo period, teahouses called Nakamuraya and Fujiya in the torii gate of Yasaka Shrine served tea to worshipers, but eventually they began to offer tofu as a light meal and were called tofu teahouses. The teahouses that provide such tofu spread their prints to Gion and showed the diversification of tofu dishes such as Gion tofu.

In the middle of the Edo period, the modern style of raising customers to eat food was born, and the types of food developed into various types. Published in 1831 (Tenpo 2nd year), “Merchant Shopping German Guide” introduces many restaurants that serve river fish dishes, yudofu dishes, instant dishes, tea kaiseki, etc., centering on the Takase and Kamo rivers. .. On the other hand, shops that serve shōjin ryori, centered around the temple of Ji-shu near Maruyama, have begun to appear. In addition, the culture of Itamae Kappou, which was born in Osaka, permeated the period of “Hamasaku,” which opened in 1927, and had a great influence on the style of serving Kyoto restaurants.

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