Exploring Seafood Distribution in the Edo, Tokyo
Up to now, I have researched the distribution of seafood in the Edo period by reading historical documents in their original languages and have written articles on the subject. As a writer, I have learned a lot from this, but it has been a tasteless process of just writing letters one after another.
https://note.com/terumapy/n/na7fb7ce058e6
Then, why don’t we recall the fish-eating habits of the Edo period while appreciating Edo-period paintings? We hope you will enjoy reading it while imagining what fish tasted like back then.
Toyokuni Utagawa ‘s Glimpse into Food in Shinagawa
The painting we will discuss here is a Shinagawa Shoben new hall celebration painted by Toyokuni Utagawa III (whose given name here is Gotatei Kunisada).
Shoben” was a brothel in Shinagawa at that time. Today, Shinagawa is often considered an office district with many famous companies. Still, in those days, it was also a playground for adults. It was also featured in rakugo stories such as “Shinagawa shinju“.
Let’s look at the painting. In the distance are mountains and the sea with floating houseboats and cargo boats. In the foreground is a row of houses with a wall with a creep-back fence. Five women are depicted, the two in the center carrying dishes. A whole sea bream is lying in the middle, and the tableware is also gorgeous. The three women on the far right and the woman carrying the food are considered nakai (middle-aged women) because they wear front coats and relatively simple hair ornaments. The other two women do not wear a kimono apron, and their elaborate hair ornaments and bare chests suggest that they are prostitutes. The hustle and bustle of the preparations could be heard at any moment.
The sea bream is served to customers who come to visit the restaurant, and the two prostitutes are entertaining them. As the title of the painting says, “New Hall Celebration,” it must have been more elaborate than usual.
Historical Cooking: The ‘Beniyaki’ Recipe
There is a recipe for this sea bream. Sachiko Matsushita, a professor emeritus at Chiba University, writes: It is said to be a dish of sea bream called “Beniyaki,” a dish of sea bream baked while coated with sake mixed with sugar. When the plump, grilled seabream meat was placed in the mouth along with the crispy skin, the aroma of the fish would have been delicious to the nose. The reddish-brown skin of the sea bream would have been a delicacy to be savored by the eyes and the palate.
“Sakana zukushi” focuses on how the sea bream is placed on the plate. Usually, when putting fish on a plate in Japan, the head is positioned on the left, and the belly is placed on the bottom. In this painting, however, the fish is deliberately placed with the belly on top.
This painting depicts a scene of a brothel. To show this, it is thought that the artist dared to depict the sea bream in this manner, in defiance of Japanese food conventions.
(Imagaes from ‘sakana zukushi’, supervised by Yasuo Suehiro)