Abstract

The style of Japanese cuisine in its present form supposedly saw its completion during early modern times. The same period is also known for the marked development of a printing and reading culture. Both pheno- mena have to be seen in the context of the emergence of an affluent urban life style and concomitant economic growth. An ever increasing number of books of advice offered orientation for people who had to find their way in a society that grew more and more complicated and anonymous (in 1720, Edo, modern Tokyo, was the largest city in Japan and alone counted one million inhabitants). These practical manuals often contained collections of rules for polite behaviour in all situations of life, table manners included. In an age when Confucian learning dominated all kinds of scholarship, it is hardly surprising that the expositions of etiquette or ‘rites’ － central to Confucianism as it evolved in China － drew on Confucian concepts. This article investigates Chinese influence on the development of etiquette rules in early modern Japan and argues that the theoretical framework for writing about manners as well as the structural arrangement of the meal and even a number of concrete prescriptions for eating certain dishes cannot be understood without the Chinese background.