= The real reason eating meat was banned for the Japanese masses =
https://c7.alamy.com/comp/FHYM1H/caricature-of-russo-japanese-war-FHYM1H.jpg
https://kome-academy.com/en/roots/meat.html
Washoku as a myth was haphazardly fabricated during Meiji Japan in an effort to entice the Japanese masses into militarization that the Western financed Meiji usurpers engineered to join the madness of Western powers for colonization of Asia.
The Meiji planners obsessed with Westernization, however, were ashamed of the diminished stature of the Japanese males (at less than 5 feet) enticed to join the military with promises to eat bowls of polished white rice (unimaginable until the extraction of rice from Joseon Korea).
Seeing that Westerners consumed meat regularly, the Meiji planners believed the diminished stature of Japanese males could be corrected by rapid consumption of beef (also extracted from Joseon Korea as “imports” so that within 5 years Japanese beef consumption shot up 13 times higher).
To initiate such a shift to jump start inventing a meat eating culture catching up to the taller and bulkier Westerners, the Meiji planners arranged a publicity stunt by making use of the newly installed Meiji king of Japan. By having Meiji consume beef in public, the more than millennium ban on meat eating abruptly ended. Meiji’s wife also appeared with white teeth instead of the Japanese high brow centuries old practice of teeth blackening, ohaguro, which was outlawed just as abruptly by embarrassed Meiji planners. Meiji was later titled emperor when Hokkaido/Ezo and Okinawa/Ryukyu Islands were soon subjugated as Japan’s first colonies, hence empire.
History of Asian Cosmetics
https://www.timetoast.com/timelines/history-of-asian-cosmetics
As Japan entered modern times, an official government decree of the third year of the Meiji period,outlawed the practice of tooth-blackening and eyebrow shaving among the peerage; and after Empress Meiji herself gave up blackening her teeth, women gradually followed suit.
A strange incident occurred soon after Meiji ate beef in a public display. Ten Buddhist monks tried to assassinate their newly minted emperor. The Japanese made up a story that the monks attempted to kill the emperor for violating the old meat eating ban. But most likely the press was used to cover up another motivation. The Meiji planners at the time sought to split the Shinto from Buddhist religions which were just mishmashed into a lump, even passing a law to allow Buddhist monks in Japan to eat meat. The split was to make it easier to transfer wealth accumulated at temples through Shinto priest collaborators to finance the Meiji planners’ costly militarization. The loss of wealth and influence overnight was likely a bigger motivation to assassinate Meiji, not his violating the millennium meat eating ban. The true motivation has long been covered up as a story connected to Japan’s abrupt shift to eating beef instead.
The imposition of Buddhism happened to have coincided with the reign of Tenmu in the 7th century A.D. (late start Japanese history is not as long as Korea or China), who conquered the eastern regions and decreed that the Japanese he subjugated were forbidden to eat meat. (Tenmu was a foreign colonizer subjugating the eastern regions of Japan, hailing from ancient Baekje Korean bloodline.)
Yet, there is a hidden motivation behind why meat was forbidden underlying the cover of Buddhism as a distraction of an explanation. It really had nothing to do with Buddhism. Before delving into the distraction side, the hidden reason must be disclosed first so that all makes sense.
Although Buddhism eventually came to be circulated as the popular justification for the ban, a Japanese researcher reveals the hidden real reason for the ban was actually to ensure the warrior class had the body muscle mass advantage through scarce meat supply to continue subjugation of the enfeebled meatless diet Japanese populace.
Thus, the prohibition was actually flouted by the upper warrior class who ruled by consuming Yayoi derived rice, rice wine, meat and milk products, often available at the very Buddhist temples as “medicine”.
An undernourished, shrunken and weakened population would be easier to control and Buddhism was used as a mental excuse for compliance by the masses.
Quotes:
• “The prohibition of a meat diet, however, was not a result of the dissemination of Buddhism, but was because of orders from the rulers at the time.”
• “The Imperial Court also tried to discourage a meat diet as it did not want rice-growing peasants to consume meat.”
• “A meat diet was essential for the success of warlords of the era.”
Meat diet and use of milk in the history of Japan
Shigeru Sugiyama
https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/19227662/
Abstract
It is generally believed the Japanese race was formulated from multiple ethnic groups, with a strong influence from so-called “hunting people.”
The prohibition of a meat diet, however, was not a result of the dissemination of Buddhism, but was because of orders from the rulers at the time.
Animal meat and milk are ideal protein sources for humans, which most likely contributed to the physical buildup and stamina of caucasians.
Many heroes in the Japanese warring states period including Iyeyasu Tokugawa, Soun Hojo and Motonari Mori lived long with numerous offspring. In addition to good luck and inborn physical strength, it appears they were particularly careful with their daily habits including diet.
Since around the Fifth Century AD, Japanese rulers began building government-run pastures in many places to raise horses and cattle, from which meat and dairy products were regularly supplied.
As this episode portrays, beef-eating was practiced since ancient times, the popularity of which was so high that the Tokugawa Shogunate often attempted to control its consumption with prohibitive orders.
The Imperial Court also tried to discourage a meat diet as it did not want rice-growing peasants to consume meat.
Samurai, the warrior-class people, however, regularly hunted for wild animals for their own consumption. Many samurai of the warring states generally kept manufacturing facilities for weapons and armor, and such facilities regularly produced fresh meat as byproducts.
A meat diet was essential for the success of warlords of the era.
The production of butter, on the other hand, was introduced through Kudara in Seventh Century AD, and butter was a popular gift to provincial governors.
Milk and dairy products became popular in the 15th Century along with the introduction of Christianity to Japan, and in the 18th Century, Yoshimune, the Shogun of the time, created retail stores for milk.
Milk never became popular, however, probably because it does not go very well with cooked rice, the ubiquitous staple food in Japan.
Despite the modern marketing, the beef cattle in Japan are actually from Korea historically. The first Korean breed was brought by Korean rice farmers (Japanese call Yayoi based on wheel spun pottery that is different from the coiled Jomon pottery and prehistoric skeleton remains of Yayoi were taller than Jomon). The ancient Korean kingdom of Baekje continued to colonize Japan, bringing cows, horses, ironworks, silk weaving, clothes making, Buddhism, and even the matsutake mushrooms that came with transplanting Korean red pines for temple buildings in the newfound colony situated in ancient Japan.
However, thousands of years later, the prime beef cattle base stock were all confiscated from far more abundant Joseon Korea during the Meiji Japan period, then hybridized as Japanese and falsely projected to the English speaking world as overnight “native” Japanese cattle.
The Meiji usurpers were obsessed with mimicking Western culture to put on airs of modernization, hence fabricating having “native” cows, too. Previously, the ancient Japanese did not have widespread cattle and the masses could not eat beef. The royal black cattle of Joseon Korea’s Jeju Island raised exclusively as the royal herd for the king was greedily relocated and arbitrarily assigned as Japanese and the brown cattle used mainly as draught animals were left as Korean.
What To Know About Hanwoo, The Wagyu Beef of Korea
Feb 20, 2021
https://www.themanual.com/food-and-drink/what-is-hanwoo-beef/
Although often described as the Wagyu of Korea, the reality is that the Hanwoo breed predates all Japanese cattle. Cows first arrived in Japan from the Asian mainland over 2,000 years ago, with many of these first generation cattle hailing from the Korean peninsula.
Between 1868 and 1910, there was also an infusion of Korean genetics to cattle raised in the Japanese prefectures of Kumamoto and Kochi. In fact, Red Wagyu/Akasuhi cattle bears a strong physical resemblance to the Hanwoo breed.
Korean Hanwoo cattle is recognized as one of the oldest continuous cattle species with 5000 years history.
Previous origin theories tried to portray Hanwoo as imported from elsewhere. Yet in this current DNA analysis indicates indigenous native breeding of Hanwoo. The maternal mtDNA is especially unique to the Northeast Asia region and not found elsewhere.
Japanese cattle are lumped with Korean cattle because Meiji Japan confiscated Korean cattle to Japan, although this history is not mentioned, the DNA cannot be explained any other way
Quotes:.
- The tree clearly clustered Korean cattle breeds on a separate node than the European taurine cattle breeds.
- This might suggest a separate domestication event for north-east asian cattle.
- Also, mitochondria based studies have identified a haplotype T4 that is observed in north east asian cattle breeds but not in other breeds (Mannen et al., [7]). The PCA plot also clearly separated Hanwoo and Wagyu (Japanese cattle) from Hereford and angus cattle thus supporting the inference from neighbor joining tree.
Hanwoo cattle: origin, domestication, breeding strategies and genomic selection
Journal of Animal Science and Technology
May 15, 2014
https://janimscitechnol.biomedcentral.com/articles/10.1186/2055-0391-56-2
Abstract
Hanwoo (Korean cattle) is the native, taurine type of cattle breed of Korea and its history as a draft animal dates back to 5000 Years.
In earlier times Hanwoo was used extensively for farming, transportation. Over the period of time, Hanwoo has changed to be meat type cattle. Full-scale production of Hanwoo as meat-type cattle has occurred since 1960s with the rapid growth of the Korean economy.
Hanwoo is one of the most economically important species in Korea as it is a significant source of nutrition to the Korean people. Hanwoo beef is the most cherished food of Korea.
Figure 1
- Pictures of four Hanwoo cattle. (A) Brown Hanwoo, (B) Brindle Hanwoo, (C) Black Hanwoo and (D) Jeju black Hanwoo.
ORIGIN AND DOMESTICATION
Origin and domestication of not just Hanwoo but all north-east asian cattle is a topic of discussion among researchers.
The tree clearly clustered Korean cattle breeds on a separate node than the European taurine cattle breeds.
This might suggest a separate domestication event for north-east asian cattle.
Also, mitochondria based studies have identified a haplotype T4 that is observed in north east asian cattle breeds but not in other breeds (Mannen et al., [7]). The PCA plot also clearly separated Hanwoo and Wagyu (Japanese cattle) from Hereford and angus cattle thus supporting the inference from neighbor joining tree.
Hanwoo is lower in cholesterol compared to other beef. It also has a higher omega 3 fatty acid count which makes it healthier than beef from other cattle. Taste-wise, it’s very soft, juicy, and delicious. The marbling in Hanwoo steak is excellent as well and it has the right balance of meat and fat. Korean consumers decided their overall acceptability of Hanwoo beef are as follows: weights of tenderness 55%, juiciness 18%, and flavor-likeness 27% [3].
No wonder Korean consumers, despite the high price prefer Hanwoo beef to the imported one.
All the Meiji Japan woodblock prints and modern movie depictions of Meiji era Japanese indulging in beef sukiyaki could only be possible from “importing” Korean beef to fill the centuries long beef meat vacuum in Japan.
Overlooked as ancient washoku, one consistent main actually traditional meat staple for Japanese carried from Jomon Japanese aboriginal origins practice since 35,000 years ago is the consumption of monkey meat. The Jomon connected as a first wave out of Africa human migration into southern Sundaland negrito people that then migrated northward from submerging Southeast Asia tropical region following the macaque monkeys as a pursued hunted food source as the Ice Age ended coexisted with the northernmost primate monkeys native to the Japan coastal landmass which soon separated from the mainland continent.
Female craniometrics support the ‘two-layer model’ of human dispersal in Eastern Eurasia
Scientific Reports
Oct 21, 2021
https://www.nature.com/articles/s41598-021-00295-6
The resulting craniometric data indicate that the examined specimens all belong to the “first layer” of dispersal, and share a common ancestor with recent Australian and Papuan populations, and the ancient Jomon people of Japan.
This two-layer model of population history has been strongly supported by recent genome-wide ancient DNA analyses in East/Southeast Asia. Indeed, these genomic studies suggest that the first layer, which equated archaeologically with the Hoabinhian in Mainland Southeast Asia, shared genetic resources with the ancient Jomon people of Japan, as documented independently by the morphometric cranial affinities between these two populations that we have discussed above.
Further comparisons reveal that the people of the first layer were closer in terms of their facial morphology to modern Africans and Sri Lankan Veddah than to modern Asians and Europeans,…
Japanese woman of the extinct Jōmon people lived 3,800 years ago and had a high alcohol tolerance, smelly armpits and a high-fat diet
Daily Mail
May 23, 2019
https://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/article-7063587/Japanese-woman-lived-3-800-years-ago-high-alcohol-tolerance.html
The Japanese and Japanese Monkeys: Dissonant Neighbors Seeking Accommodation in a Shared Habitat
Jul 25, 2012
https://link.springer.com/chapter/10.1007%2F978-1-4614-3967-7_3
The ancestors of both the Japanese monkey (Macaca fuscata) and humans (Homo sapiens) arrived in the Japanese archipelago during the Pleistocene epoch.
Thus, humans and monkeys have lived together in Japan for more than 35,000 years.
From the neolithic, monkeys were hunted for food or were venerated for their spiritual powers.
Japanese monkey hunters …
Monkey meat true washoku heritage tradition for 35,000 years.
