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to try new recipes and made homemaking more interesting and less labour
consuming. Moreover, variety in diet was at the time considered beneficial
for one’s health; varied diet was propagated by physicians as a means to
improve appetite. For example, in 1898 the British popular magazine Home
Chat drew the attention of its readers to the monotony of school meals,
stating that
unvarying monotony with which each day brings forth its regular
menu is a real hindrance to the proper nourishment that ought
to be conveyed to those growing bodies . . . All medical men plead
for variety of food as being one of the chief things to be aimed at
towards supplying the waste and building up of our bodies. . . .
All this variety need not necessarily mean expensive. 38
In 1911 Sasaki Sachiko, a culinary instructor at Japan Women’s College,
explained that the general ‘progress of life’ was the reason behind the need
for more variety in the Japanese home diet. She remarked as follows:
Nowadays, the knowledge and interests of people have progressed.
The advanced style of work and general rules of life
have become elaborate and complicated. In such circumstances
our body can no longer stand simple traditional food, nor can
this type of food satisfy our souls . . . Following the development
of our interests, we also have come to desire novel tastes
with regard to food. 39
102
Students of Japan
Women’s College at
a Japanese cookery
class, from Tourist
Library 14:
Japanese Food
(1936).