[Sca-cooks] japanese menus

[Elaine Koogler]

I would really appreciate anything you can share on this topic.  I have tried for
the past 20 years to be able to cook a period Japanese meal. I do have a Japanese
persona, and would love to be able to present food from my persona's period and
culture.

I did an oriental feast last fall, which featured period Chinese and Mongol dishes,
but the Japanese dishes we served were "guesses" based on some information I had
about ingredients that were available in Japan in period.  I've also been waiting
for a book on the history of Japanese cuisine...the one Devra mentioned in her post
earlier yesterday...for about 2 years.  I have a standing order for the book from
her, but no idea as to when it will materialize!!

So any information you can share would be gratefully received.  Thanks!!!!

Kiri
(Minowara Kiritsubo)

Gaylin Walli wrote:

> It just occurs to me that as I sit here posting some Japanese menus on the
> SCA-JML (Japanese Mailing List), there are people elsewhere who might
> think it amiss if I didn't at least offer to share here as well.... At the risk
> of double and triple posting people, I'll start sending these files
> to SCA-Cooks,
> MK-Cooks, and the JML. I've included my original note below. -- Iasmin
>
> From:  "Gaylin Walli" <iasmin at h...>
> Date:  Tue May 15, 2001  7:42 pm
> Subject:  Japanese menus from period are on their way
>
> As I mentioned in previous email, one of the things I've
> been looking for has been documentable Japanese menus from
> our researched time period. My persona in the SCA is not
> Japanese, but I am married to a man with a Japanese persona
> and my dream is to be able to cook such meals for him as may
> have been done in period. As the baron and baroness of our
> local area, we also run into a little trouble with our
> populace because, while we can direct them to period Spanish
> cookbooks (my persona is from Cordban Spain, 1550s), we have
> a very hard time finding good references in English to meals
> they can cook for us from period Japan.
>
> I have since begun to solve that problem by a recent find at
> the Detroit Institute of Arts (DIA), in the form of two articles
> that have proven invaluable as a starting point for research.
> The Journals are ones carried regularly by the DIA and as a
> non-profit research organization member, we have the wonderful
> priveledge of accessing the information at this library.
>
> _Asian Art_ magazine was the first journal we had the chance to
> look at during our research. The head librarian pulled this
> journal because in it is an article by Louise Allison Cort on
> Japanese ceramics. However, the article is called "Japanese
> Ceramics and Cuisine" because it contains a very good series of
> descriptions about some of the food with which the ceramics
> were used. Specially, Ms. Cort goes to the trouble of detailing
> a cache of ceramics discovered in March 1988 in Kyoto, believed
> to be on the site of a late sixteenth-century merchant and
> collector of pottery. The term she uses to  "karamonoya" to
> describe this merchant, stating that he was a "dealer in native
> and foreign ceramics, both new and antique" (pg. 9).
>
> The article focuses on the pottery and cuisine, and the evolution
> thereof, involved with "chanoyu," which I understand in my
> limited knowledge of Japanese culture to have been the tea ceremony
> featured at the gatherings of merchants, officials, and religous
> people, as well as nobles. Ms. Cort also discusses at some small
> length the "kaiseki ryori" and "honzen ryori" evolutions. These
> were at the time described as the food prepared for the tea
> ceremony.
>
> The second article I have is from _Chanoyu Quarterly_, a journal
> on tea and the arts of Japan. Originally written for a Japanese
> exhibition catalog from Japan, this article is a translation and
> an adaption from the original. Its title is "The History of the
> Kaiseki Meal" and is authored by Tsutsui Jiroichi, though the
> first page states that the article is a translation. No name is
> given for the translator. Tsutsui Hiroichi is also one of the
> editorial advisors for this publication.
>
> In both articles foodstuffs and full menus are listed for period
> and near-period meals which may be of interest to the SCAdians and
> research nuts on this list. I claim no expertise in these items of
> interest, merely a sincere desire to provide people with menus for
> which they and I have been searching for in ernest for some time.
>
> I hope that the next few posts I place will be of use to you all and
> will help with the discussions on this list, perhaps inspiring a
> few of you to cook some of the menus. I'll post each menu as a
> separate post and include the published names information I have
> attached to the information. I'm doing it this way so I can spread
> it all out across the course of the evening as I do my work. My
> apologies in advance for the delays between posts.
>
> Iasmin
>
> Iasmin de Cordoba
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