《Modern Japanese Cuisine》

'Modern Japanese Cuisine is one of those rare scholarly books that should appeal to the palate of the general literary omnivore as well as to the more specialized tastes of the professional scholar . . . well-researched and concise.' - Monumenta Nipponica

'Culinary history has opened up new perspectives in the study of culture, technology, economics, and politics as well as other fields. Katarzyna Cwiertka’s recent work is a lucid example of such a treatment of history through

foodways, clarifying, on the one hand, ideas of nationalism and ideologies of identity, and, on the other, from the ground up, cultural understandings of taste and human behavior . . .

This is a work to read and reread as the detail is so rich. This deeply engaged treatment of Japanese modernizing foodways underscores the power of producers, marketers, and policymakers, along with ordinary consumers, in an interactive system of nutritional and cultural production and consumption.' - Journal of Japanese Studies

Katarzyna Cwiertka, lecturer in Japanese studies at Leiden University, presents in this book a history of the development of modern Japanese cuisine (i.e. from the Meiji revolution to the present day). She focuses on the social and political factors that affected the eating habits of the Japanese people, arguing that what is regarded as traditional Japanese cuisine is to a great extent a product of late-nineteenth and early-twentieth century imperial policies. She also argues that a great deal of what is regarded as properly Japanese cuisine is in fact of Western (European and American), Chinese, and Korean origin. Of especial interest is her documentation of the extensive role that military catering played in the creation of a homogeneous national cuisine. A postscript looks at the developments Japanese cuisine has undergone outside Japan. The book is clearly written and accessible to non-academics, with a bibliography that provides English-language sources whenever possible. This is an excellent book that should be of interest to anyone interested in Japanese cooking or Japanese culture.