ANST - Period ... tofu?

[Crescentia _]

Dear Isabeau--
	
The Nara Period was from 710-792.  The Muromachi Period was from 
1333-1573.  The Edo Period (sometimes called the Tokugawa Period, after 
its founder) was from 1603-1867.  As a side historical note, Buddhism 
was imported (in the form of a present) in either 538 or 552.  There 
seems to be some degree of confusion on that point.

Regarding European-Japanese interaction in period, the first Europeans-- 
Portuguese-- arrived in Kyushu (Western Japan) in 1542.  And as 
additional background information, St. Francis Xavier established the 
first mission  (in 1549 or 1550) in Kyoto.  The Jesuits made up the main 
body of missionaries; the Franciscans were present to a lesser degree. 
(The Jesuits were interesting insofaras their method consisted of 
educating the children of prominent Japanese. The children would take 
tests they would study their whole lives for, to acheive a governmental 
position.  So a lot of the Jesuits who taught mnemonics and memory 
tricks definitely made themselves very strong political friends.)  And 
of course, you would have the traders going in and out of Japan.  _The 
Memory Palace of Matteo Ricci_ by Jonathan D. Spence is a really good 
book to read if you want to get an idea of these early European-Japanese 
interactions.

I doubt tofu would really be around in 13th c. Spain, though, although I 
have no idea where the soybean grew in that time period.  But as a last 
side note (*apologies for my tangents!*), I read somewhere that an 
interesting way to explain your food preferences is merely to say that 
"I'm giving up meat for my penance" or somesuch.  ^_^

-Crescentia the Non-Concise


>Dear Crecentia
>    As a semi vegiterian married to a completely veggie man, I am
>impressed with the reseach and the talk lately reguarding the tofu. 
Could
>you please list the "real years" instead of the dynasty names. It might 
be
>interesting to figure out how to incorperate tofu into the life of 13th
>century Spain. I think that it would be wonderful if there were more
>choices of nonmeat dishes at feasts. I am almost embarssed to keep 
asking
>what's in this or were any pork products used to make this dish.  So
>please continue to do the good work of listing ideas about nonmeat  
amin
>course and such.
>   Sincerely,         Isabeau de Murcia

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