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Three
Strengthening the Military
Farmer-Entrepreneur Kanie Ichitarō
The transfer of cooking skills from the Westerners in the treaty ports to
their Japanese employees went hand in hand with the development of
an infrastructure of suppliers of the necessary ingredients. Along with the
inspiration to emulate Western-style dining by the Japanese elite discussed
in chapter One, this was the third important channel that facilitated the
diffusion of Western food among wider sections of the Japanese population.
The demand created by Westerners was, at the early stage, a critical
stimulant for the production of hitherto unknown foodstuffs, as we have
observed earlier with the example of beef. However, meat supply was
not the only problem. In the early years, onions for use in the treaty ports
were imported from Bombay and potatoes from America. 1
The use of vegetables in Japanese kitchens during the Edo period
was very diverse, depending on the region. Various types of radishes
(daikon, kabu), tubers (gobō, satoimo), gourds (yūgao, tōgan) and leeks
were cultivated, and numerous kinds of wild greens, bamboo shoots and
mushrooms were collected. 2 Sweet potatoes and squash were also available,
but not the vegetables that were widely used in Western-style cooking, such
as cabbage, carrots, onions, tomato, beetroot, celery, asparagus, cauliflower,
string beans, green peas, parsley, etc. Some of them, like white potatoes,
had been introduced during the Tokugawa period, but failed to spread on a
wide scale.
These vegetables began to be grown in Japan soon after the establishment
of the first Western communities in the 1860s. 3 New varieties of the
vegetables that had been known in Japan, such as carrots and eggplants,
were also introduced during the Meiji period and gradually replaced or
crossed with the Japanese varieties. The new food plants were all labelled
seiyō yasai (Western vegetables), including the Chinese cabbage that was
carried to Japan by the Chinese servants and clerks who accompanied the
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