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that’s why they’ve invented amazing things like the steamship
and the steam engine. 55
The gyūnabe fashion rested on the foundation of the ‘medicinal eating’
that claimed meat consumption was beneficial for one’s health. The association
with Western cuisine, in view of the rising interest in Western
civilization and its achievements, attributed meat eating with an aura of
novelty and excitement. The consumption of beef by the emperor, in turn,
elevated it into the symbol of Japan’s transformation into a modern nation.
The meat-eating fashion translated the reforms of ‘civilization and enlightenment’
into a language that could be understood easily by the common
man. As a result the gyūnabe fashion thrived; the daily consumption of
meat in the Tokyo area increased from one-and-a-half cows in 1868 to
twenty cows five years later. 56 By the late 1870s Tokyo counted several hundred
establishments that were serving beef stew. 57
The Meiji government was closely involved in propagating meat
eating through the encouragement of a domestic cattle industry and
attempts to regulate the import, slaughter and trade of cattle in Japan. 58 In
terms of ideological support, the government was aided by intellectuals
such as Fukuzawa Yukichi, who devoted themselves to the propagation
of meat eating. They argued that the lavish consumption of meat by the
Westerners was responsible for their superior physique, and they tried
to convince the Japanese public that by adopting Western dietary habits
Japanese bodies would be bolstered as well. Meiji intellectuals often adopted
the opinions expressed in Western scientific publications of the time
that perceived meat as an ideal food essential to growth, health and
strength. 59 Under the influence of social Darwinism, the discourse took on
a tone of racial debate, in which the strong constitution of the Westerners
came to be considered a sign of racial superiority. 60 In this respect, Meiji
intellectuals were also inspired by the Western opinion that perceived meat
not only as the basis of physical strength but also as a significant source of
intellectual and moral capacity. Edwin Lankester, for example, a leading
British scientific publicist, stated in one of his lectures of 1860 that ‘those
races who have partaken of animal food are the most vigorous, most moral,
and most intellectual races of mankind’. Similarly, an American cookery
writer, Sarah Hale, argued that the British dominance of India proved the
fact that meat-eaters dominated world politics. 61
Such views were widely shared by statesmen and social reformers
of the time and it does not seem surprising that the issue of meat eating assumed
such an important role in Meiji politics. Furthermore, the abolishment
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