Japanese food culture favoring raw food - A unique food culture in the world is supported by soy sauce.
2022-11-25
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Japanese food culture of eating raw fish
The Japanese people are said to have a unique culture of eating raw fish, and their food culture, typified by sushi, is being introduced to the world. If you think about it carefully, even Japanese people do not eat sashimi as is. If you don't use soy sauce, the sashimi will just be fishy and dry and you won't be able to eat it, and conversely, you won't use anything other than soy sauce for sashimi. Japanese people might think that American sushi uses mayonnaise or chili sauce, which completely eliminates the flavor of the ingredients.
Unique Japanese soy sauce
If you think about it that way, soy sauce exists in many Asian countries, but Japanese soy sauce is also uniquely Japanese. One of the basics of Japanese cuisine is ``sashisu seso,'' which means sugar, salt, vinegar, soy sauce, and miso. These are used as the base flavor of various Japanese dishes. Many people may have noticed the smell of soy sauce at the airport when they returned to Japan from overseas.
Relationship between soy sauce and raw dishes
Soy sauce is an essential seasoning for Japanese cuisine. Japan seems to be a rare country where people eat raw eggs. What I realized is that even Japanese people do not eat raw eggs as is. You can eat it for the first time by putting it on rice and pouring soy sauce on it.
In Japan, there is a culture of eating raw vegetables. Even in the West, we eat fresh raw vegetables such as salads. On the other hand, in China there is no culture of eating raw vegetables. From a Chinese perspective, it's hard to eat raw vegetables. You may be thinking.
Soy sauce creates Japanese food culture
In any case, it can be said that the culture of eating raw fish and raw eggs was first established in Japan with soy sauce. Soy sauce is used in all Japanese cuisine to enhance the flavor of the ingredients without overpowering them. It can be said that foreigners visiting Japan are experiencing the natural flavor of fish brought out by Japanese soy sauce.
The fact that Japanese people prefer raw ingredients is actually deeply connected to the invisible seasoning called soy sauce. Conversely, Japanese soy sauce is almost always used when eating raw ingredients. On the other hand, I feel that no matter how many other seasonings you use in the world, you can't make raw fish or raw eggs delicious.
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Japan is a maritime nation that knows everything about the sea - there is nothing we can learn from China and South Korea.
The reason foreigners who have eaten sushi in Japan say that Japanese sushi is different is not just the skill of the sushi chefs or the freshness of the fish. Japan's fishing industry is not just about collecting fish. Depending on the characteristics of the fish, the fish are caught during the season when they are at their fattest or when they are rich in nutrients before spawning.
Yellowtail is caught in various places in Japan, but it is said that the yellowtail caught in the area of Himi in Toyama Prefecture is the highest in Japan, and the reason for this is that melted snow from the Tateyama Mountain Range covers most of the areas where humans live. Because the yellowtail is nurtured in the mineral-rich seawater that flows into Himi Bay without passing through the water, it becomes a delicious yellowtail that is incomparable to any other. Japan's fishing industry has been carried out based on careful consideration of the fishing grounds, even the river water that flows from the mountains, and the knowledge of the temperature and temperature that changes depending on the seasonal flow of ocean currents.
Looking at the reactions of China and South Korea regarding the Fukushima treated water issue, it appears that although both countries have nuclear power plants, they do not have the engineers to develop the fundamentals. They probably purchased equipment from overseas, installed it, learned how to operate it, and then started generating electricity. Even if we say that we are building a nuclear power plant in our own country, we are not talking about the basic parts, we are doing things like minor changes in a car, but we are not talking about the actual radioactive materials, what is contained in the cooling water, etc. doesn't seem to know.
People are crying out that their country's fishing industry will suffer catastrophic damage, but Japan is one of the leading environmental conservation countries among developed countries and knows everything about fish ecology, ocean currents, and seasonal changes. It is safe to say that there is nothing to learn from China and South Korea. Then, the release into the ocean was started in collaboration with an international organization.
For the next 30 years, China and South Korea will live in fear of radioactivity, but this is not a problem that Japan perceives. Japan can only properly overcome the unprecedented nuclear power plant accident, release treated water, and continue its life as a maritime nation that catches delicious fish as before.
Surprisingly few countries see the first sunrise of the year - The arrival of sunlight in Japan is connected to the sun worshiping Amaterasu Omikami
When I looked into how many countries have the custom of watching the first sunrise of the year, I found that it was fewer than I expected, with countries such as Mongolia, South Korea, Russia, the United States, and Canada mentioned. It is said that Russia, the United States, Canada, and other countries have a culture that spread from the Arctic Circle, so it is a so-called Inuit culture. There is a connection because the Inuit are said to be Mongoloids.
It is unclear why this custom spread to Korea, but the prevailing theory is that Japan's ethnic roots are Mongoloid or Caucasian, and I have seen the genetic theory of Lake Baikal. Although Lake Baikal is now part of Russia, it is thought that Mongoloid people lived at that time as well, and Kyrgyz folklore says that it was the Japanese who moved east and the Kyrgyz who moved west. . Even Japanese people are surprised at how similar Kyrgyz people are to Japanese people.
In Japan in particular, the first sunrise is also called goraiko and is considered a blessing, as it is associated with ancient Japanese beliefs. Japan's national flag is the Japanese flag and the sun. The Rising Sun Flag also has a deformed sun design to make it stand out. What does this originate from? It is a belief in the sun, which is a belief in nature. In other words, Amaterasu Omikami. Amaterasu Omikami, said to be the origin of the imperial lineage, is enshrined at Ise Grand Shrine, and there are many shrines dedicated to Amaterasu Omikami in various places. Currently, there is a debate about male-lineal succession, but if you trace the paternal lineage, you will reach the first emperor, Emperor Jimmu, and in fact, in mythology, you will reach Amaterasu Omikami. This has been the legitimate imperial line in Japan since the beginning of recorded history.
The reason that many Japanese people raise the national flag and sing the national anthem without learning anything about the history of the national flag and the Emperor (Imperial lineage), which are considered symbols of Japan, is a problem of education. Why aren't these basic things taught in elementary school? Taking up the Amanoiwato myth, the imperial lineage is written from Amaterasu Omikami, the sun god, and the sun is depicted on the Japanese flag. It's that simple.
The prohibition on religious education under the Constitution only prohibits propagating or excluding a specific religion, recommending conversion to any religion, or denying religion itself. There is no problem if you explain the customs and culture of the beginning of the year, such as Christmas, New Year's Eve bell, and the first sunrise of the year. At least many Japanese people enjoy Christmas, listen to New Year's Eve bells on New Year's Eve, and visit shrines on New Year's Day.
Japanese industrial machinery Most Korean manufacturing industrial machinery is made in Japan.Industrial robots are called the world's Big Four: FANUC (Japan), Yasukawa Electric (Japan), KUKA (Germany), and ABB (Switzerland).Kawasaki Heavy Industries (Japan) and Fujikoshi (Japan) are included in the top six.Of course, modern products are made by machines.Machines are also needed to make machines.
Japanese cuisine that brings out the taste of ingredients.Japanese unique evolution without spices.
Japanese food is said to be unique.Japanese food uses very little spice.The West colonized Asia for spices.In Western cuisine, pepper is a magic powder used to eliminate the smell of meat, and pepper is indispensable for preserved meat such as pancetta.It is said that Japan did not have access to spices because it was closed to the country at that time, but since the Meiji Restoration, there have been no dishes that use a lot of spices.South Korean food is rich in chili peppers, which came from Japan when Hideyoshi went to Korea.Soy sauce comes from China.The distinctive difference between Chinese and Japanese cuisine is that Chinese cuisine uses a lot of oil, but the Japanese don't like it.As a result, it led to the longevity of the Japanese.
The basis of Japanese cuisine is soup stock.In Japan, umami ingredients derived from seafood are historically used.Glutamic acid, the ingredient of Ajinomoto, was discovered by a Japanese, Ikeda Kikunae, and is said to have made world cuisine delicious.Glutamic acid is one of the delicious ingredients, which is also derived from the exploration of the taste and ingredients contained in Japanese ingredients.
In 1907, Ikeda Kikunae succeeded in extracting sodium L-glutamate from kelp.
In the West, the concept of soup stock includes French cuisine using consomme soup.In Italy, fish and shellfish are boiled down or fried as toppings, so you can get soup stock as a result.Boil down the ingredients in soup and you'll get the soup stock.The world-famous soups are Borscht and Tom Yum Kung.
Many foreigners say that Japanese sushi is delicious because it is fresh, but that's not the case.At high-end sushi restaurants, tuna is matured with the restaurant's technology for a reasonable period of time and sushi is made with ingredients that bring out sufficient flavor.Since there were no spices in Japan, it is the present state by pursuing technology and harmony that fully brings out the taste of the ingredients.This is one of the unique dishes in the world.
Japanese food has developed into its own style because spices did not enter Japan during the long period of isolation.
In Japan, there is a ``misunderstanding'' that the inclusion of the ``Kojiki'' in school education violates the constitution, which prohibits religious education.
When asked about the idea of teaching the Kojiki in compulsory education, I was surprised to find that even self-proclaimed conservatives became so passionate about counterarguing it. When I asked the basis for this objection, I was told that the ban on religious education is written into the Constitution. And it seems that there are many people who are poisoned by the self-deprecating historical view that Shinto led to the Greater East Asia War. These people have no understanding of religious education.
Legal opinions have already been issued regarding religious education under the Constitution, and education should not promote a specific religion or exclude or deny a specific religion. Alternatively, the view is that it is education that recommends one to take refuge in some kind of religion, or that it is education that says one should not devote oneself to some kind of religion. Simply put, it's just that education that propagates or excludes religion is no good.
I wonder if Christianity comes up when explaining Michelangelo's murals. If you look at The Last Supper, would you explain who the person in the center is and what kind of circumstances the painting depicts? Why do we know that the founder of Islam was Muhammad and that the founder of Buddhism was Buddha? In other words, in Japan, we firmly believe that such things should not be taught only in Japanese Shinto.
Japanese people know the story of Golgotha Hill and the story of Adam and Eve, but they do not know what kind of being Amaterasu Omikami is or what kind of being Qiong Qiong-no-Mikoto is. It is said that there are more than 80,000 shrines across Japan, which are said to be the most religious facilities in any country in the world, but these should not be explained.
In other words, the interpretation of Japan's ban on religious education is that only Japanese Shinto should not be mentioned. Or there are teachers of the Japan Teachers' Union who are poisoned by a self-deprecating view of history and give off-the-record lessons as if Shinto led to war, showing the children a sense of justice that does not advocate Kimigayo. This is Japanese religious education. Far from being dangerous, there is no other religion as peaceful and tolerant of other religions as Japanese Shinto. On the contrary, GHQ feared the Japanese's familial view of the nation and their unbelievable power of integration, and simply eliminated the Shinto religion at its core.
Isn't Japanese Shinto necessary to teach Japanese culture? Because they are not taught, they cannot learn deeply about Japanese culture. There is no law that prohibits explaining the religious background that is a prerequisite for studying a culture.
