Yoshikawa, Seiji

Each of the Japanese regions has its own history and its own distinctive way of preparing food. These diverse styles give extraordinary variety to the national cuisine. Part of this diversity results from the geographical fact that high mountains, snaking across and down the several islands, split the country into isolated compartments. Part comes from the political fact that uptil a century ago the islands were divided into many separated feudal states, each with its own distinct cultural and culinary traditions. But, today, economical and industrial development, as well as rapid urbanization, is destroying the native cooking, by distributing food products from mass production all over the country. Foreign visitors sometimes have the impression that all Japanese cooking is pretty much the same. Native cooking is a part of Japanese traditional culture, we must preserve this indispensable treasures, never renewable if once lost. The present report is a part of the results of investigation on the changing or declining tendency with esteem of modern Japanese for the native cooking of all segments of this country.