[Sca-cooks] Period Japanese cooking?

[Solveig Throndardottir]

Noble Cousins!

Greetings from Solveig! 

On Jun 4, 2014, at 12:13 AM, JIMCHEVAL at aol.com wrote:
> Also one of the sites I browsed claimed that Japanese food really hasn't  
> changed that much over the centuries, supposedly because they're very 
> attached  to their culture. It IS true that it's an island culture that remained 
> closed to  outside influence for an unusually long time, so that is credible. 
> And to the  degree that they've adopted Western foods, it seems they've 
> mainly taken them as  is, rather than integrating them in the way, say, the 
> French integrated verjuice  and a certain approach to spices from the East.

Actually, Japanese food and food culture has evolved over time. Quite a few ingredients have been imported over time into Japanese cookery, much of it from China, but other points of origin are also well documented. Further, a number of specific dishes are known to have originated in Europe. 

Among other sources, please consult: 
Shokubunkaron Ed. by  Yoshikawa
Nihon Shokumotsushi by Sakurai, Adachi, and Sasagawa
Shokuseikatsu to shokumotsushi by Haga and Ishikawa

There are a few books (in Japanese) out there which attempt to reconstruct the diets of Pimiko and the people of the Manyoshu. 
There are also a couple of books (again in Japanese) out there which deal with dairy products in premodern Japanese cuisine. 

Since someone brought up the subject of rabbits:

As for mammals eaten in Ryrori Monogatari. The following were eaten: deer, tanuki, wild boar, rabbit, Japanese river otter, bear, and dog.
As for fowel eaten in Ryrori Monogatari. The following were eaten: crane, white swan, wild goose, wild duck, green pheasant, copper pheasant, common moorhen, Gray-Headed Lapwing, Heron, NIght Heron, Japanese quail, skylark, oriental turtle dove, sandpiper, water rail, dusky thrush, tree sparrow, and chicken.
As for aquatic animals: lots of those. 

Your Humble Servant
Solveig Throndardottir
Amateur Scholar