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Theodore
C. Bestor is Professor of Anthropology and Japanese Studies at Harvard
University, and is past president of the American Anthropological
Association’s East Asian Studies Section and the Society for Urban
Anthropology. His many publications include: “Neighborhood Tokyo” (1989),” Doing
Fieldwork in Japan” (co-editor, 2003), and his most recent, “Tsukiji:
The Fish Market at the Center of the World” (2004). His current research
looks at the development of Japanese food culture and his ongoing project
on “Global Sushi” examines the “global reach” of
Japanese seafood markets, their impact on markets and fish industries,
and the popularity of sushi and other types of Japanese foods..
1.
Background
2.
Neighborhood Tokyo: Miyamoto-cho
3.
Tokyo's Tsukiji: The Fish Market and the Center of
the World
4.
Japanese Food Culture: Looking at Sushi as
a Japanese Food and Icon
5.
Issues of Food Safety and Hygiene
6.
Lessons to be Learned from the Field: Linking Kansas
with Japan
7. Concluding
Thoughts
Lessons
to be Learned from the Field: Linking Kansas with
Japan
L: So, your research has
personally helped you grow—
B: Yes, absolutely. It’s
been a culinary odyssey.
L: That’s wonderful. As a
culinary odyssey, how can your study
of Tsukiji inform Kansans and other
Midwesterners? What kinds of things
could inform us?
B: Well—that’s a great
question—I don’t think
anybody in Kansas is going to go
out to start a tuna fishing industry.
L: Maybe carp.
B: Maybe carp—I think that
regardless of whether Kansas or
anywhere—I think one of the
points my book tries to make is
that looking at food as a cultural
and social resource or commodity,
you can learn an awful lot about
the history and structure of a society
by looking at how it feeds itself.
And one of the things North Americans
are not particularly good at, unless
they are themselves directly involved
in agriculture, is that they have
no conception about where food comes
from.
L: It’s just there.
B: It’s there—it came
in a truck. One of the things that
is impressive about Japan is that
the ordinary Japanese—they
may not be expert or have a deep
knowledge—but they have much
better general sense of food supply--where
it comes from, who produces it,
how it’s distributed—than
the average American. And because
of that, food becomes invested with
all kinds of cultural meaning, social
meaning—and so I suppose from
the perspective of an average Kansan,
looking at the food supply of Tokyo,
looking at sushi, looking at the
history of Japanese fishing, it
may at first glance not be particularly
relevant. But it is certainly relevant
for understanding how Japanese themselves
understand their lives. And by extension,
how any society can be understood
through—this is a cliché but—“We
are what we eat.” And if you
don’t understand what other
people eat, then you don’t
understand them.
L: Also, what are ways do you think
that we can reach out to bring Asia
to rural communities or places that
wouldn’t normally be informed
about Asia?
B: Eat sushi. That’s a tall
order—I don’t know what
to say—but I do think an emphasis
on food is good way to bridge lots
of cultural gaps. Even food that’s
unfamiliar.
L: Everybody likes to eat.
B: Everybody likes to eat.
Everybody likes to talk about
what they like
to eat. Everybody’s proud
of something their mother cooked
or grandmother cooked. Or that they’ve
learned how to cook from their friends,
and so forth. And, of course, not
only is food eaten everywhere but
food is produced everywhere. One
of the things that most Japanese
don’t know is how much American
food is actually in their diet.
Soybeans and corn and wheat.
L: True globalization of food.
B: Yes. Kansas and other
states around it are not only
the breadbasket
of North America, they are the breadbasket
of Asia. Food is not only a way
for people to understand each other’s
lives but to also understand each
other’s livelihoods. I suspect
that if an ordinary Japanese had
an opportunity to visit a rural
Kansas community, they would be
just amazed and impressed and awestruck.
How food is produced and the scale
of food production. Plus, places
like Kansas have, not only to Americans,
but to other people as well, have
this ring of the authentic American
experience.
I don’t know how many Japanese
visit Kansas every year—probably
not that many. Certainly, in the
Boston area, we get lots of Japanese
visitors just to see the leaves
in the fall. Somebody in Kansas
should put together an ecotourism
for Asians—to come and see
American farming.
L: My next project.
B: Yes, there you go.
Next: Concluding Thoughts
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