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earn a fortune were among them, but most consisted of experienced entrepreneurs
who followed diplomats and traders from China treaty ports
and other Western enclaves in Asia. Hotel managers and chefs that were
recruited to run new establishments in Japan not infrequently left successful
careers in the grand hotels of Shanghai or Hong Kong behind them. 17
It is possible, but hardly plausible, that they exchanged comfortable life in
the ingrained treaty ports for the hardships of the Japanese frontier for the
sake of adventure. It seems more likely, however, that their resolve was
motivated by a promise of considerable economic gain.
Many nationalities were represented in the treaty ports. For example,
a bakery run in Nagasaki by a Frenchman named Charles Thomas was
taken over after his death by a Canadian named Jean Couder. Next door,
an Italian, P. Bernardi, traded in wine and an Englishman, James Gye,
managed an establishment called the ‘Medical Hall’, which, as well as providing
medical supplies, was engaged in the production of lemonade,
ginger ale and soda water. 18 The British and Americans dominated, while
the French prevailed in prestigious hotels and restaurants.
The Japanese were at first employed as unskilled labour at Western
households and enterprises. However, as the number of Western residents
grew steadily and the demand for domestic staff and professional waiters
and cooks increased, the knowledge and experience acquired on the job
soon proved a valuable asset. This was so particularly during the 1870s
and ’80s, when Western-style dining became very fashionable among
the Japanese elite, who, inspired by the spirit of ‘civilization and enlightenment’,
began to mimic Western lifestyle. For example, the diary of
Hozumi Utako includes accounts of Western cooking being performed at
the turn of the century by the family maid, Fusa, who must have acquired
these skills with her previous employers. The Hozumi were a typical elite
household; Utako was the daughter of Shibusawa Eiichi (1840–1931), a
prominent Meiji entrepreneur, and the wife of a well-known jurist – both
members of the House of Peers. While the gentlemen had frequent occasions
to sample Western cooking in the government circles and Utako
occasionally accompanied them to Western-style restaurants, the family
dined Japanese style at home most of the time. Western-style food apparently
provided a diversion in the daily routine, however, since the results
of Fusa’s cooking are recorded in the diary: on 22 February 1903 she baked
an apple pie and on 10 September the same year she cooked stuffed chicken
and stew for the children. The family also employed a cook who is recorded
to have produced on 12 January 1902 a dinner of duck, croquettes and
plum pudding. 19
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