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disengage this act from the regular daily practice. In the countryside, neither
the central hearth of the house nor the regular pans were used when
meat was cooked for private consumption. 45 In and around cities, ‘beast
restaurants’ were usually located in specially marked areas where ‘marginalized
people engaged in their stigmatized occupations’. 46 On the other
hand, meat was considered beneficial for one’s health and its taste was
occasionally enjoyed.
The announcement that the emperor had embarked on meat eating
in 1872 put an end to this ambiguity. Although resistance towards meat
remained pronounced until the end of the nineteenth century, 47 and its
consumption remained relatively low in Japan for another hundred years,
the year 1872 considerably elevated the status of meat in Japanese eyes and
provided an important stimulus to its spread. While there is no doubt that
the emperor played a critical role in transforming the consumption practices
of the Japanese population, Western residents of the treaty ports
should be given credit for setting the stage for this transformation.
Westerners living in colonial and semi-colonial enclaves throughout
the Far East generally retained a strong preference for their native food,
although hybrid mixtures like the Anglo-Indian cuisine of the British Raj
did emerge. 48 Shortage of meat supply was felt as a most severe inconvenience
by the Western communities in nineteenth-century Japan, in particular
by the Americans and the British, who relied heavily on meat for their
daily subsistence. 49 It goes without saying that meat was a crucial indicator
of the standard of living and only the middle and upper classes had the
means to maintain meat-centred diets. However, it was exactly members of
these classes who comprised the majority of the treaty ports’ residents.
Due to the lack of domestic sources of meat except for game during
the first decade of their residence in Japan, Westerners had to rely on
imports, mainly from Shanghai. Since the technologies of refrigeration
and canning were not yet well developed, the animals were transported
alive and slaughtered in Japan. By 1868 Yokohama counted seven firms
that imported and sold meat. 50 From the mid-1860s beef cattle for consumption
by foreigners were also raised in the Santan area and shipped
to Yokohama from the nearby port of Kobe. Over the years this meat
acquired the name of ‘Kobe beef ’. 51
Westerners slaughtering animals and handling meat were often
depicted in popular publications that described Westerners and their
lifestyle. The intense curiosity and interest of common Japanese in the
novel appearance and customs of the Five Nations (British, Americans,
French, Germans and Dutch) represented in the treaty ports inspired the
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