In December 2013, “washoku: traditional dietary cultures of the Japanese” was inscribed on UNESCO’s List of Intangible Cultural Heritage. Although the international appreciation of Japanese cuisine considerably predates this, there is no doubt that washoku has come to be greatly enjoyed by visitors to Japan.
Located in the Japanese archipelago off the eastern edge of the Eurasian continent, Kyoto – a city whose history spans more than a thousand years – is home to kyō-ryōri (Kyoto cuisine), which is counted among the most iconic of washoku. Central Kyoto is packed with restaurants featuring the words “kyō-ryōri” on their signboards, but this single phrase fails to capture the truly diverse cuisine and food culture that has developed in Kyoto.
This book is a historical-geographical attempt to retrace the genealogy of restaurants and their culinary culture in Kyoto, focusing on several culinary cultures born and rooted in Kyoto, travelling back and forth from the Edo period to the present. Drawing on tourist guidebooks, literary works, newspaper advertisements, maps, illustrations, old photographs, biographical records, and even telephone directories, Kato and Kawasumi explore the foodscape that has blossomed in modern Kyoto and unearth the origins of culinary cultures that have been hidden in the fringes of its urban spaces.
