Washoku, Japan’s Traditional Cuisine, Joins UNESCO’s Intangible Heritage List
On 4 December 2013, meeting in Baku, UNESCO's committee inscribed washoku, the traditional dietary culture of the Japanese, on its list of intangible cultural heritage. The listing honours a way of eating, not a set of dishes.
UNESCO’s Intergovernmental Committee for the Safeguarding of Intangible Cultural Heritage, meeting in Baku, Azerbaijan, for its eighth session, inscribed washoku on the Representative List of the Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity on 4 December 2013. The full title of the entry is “Washoku, traditional dietary cultures of the Japanese, notably for the celebration of New Year”. With the entry, Japan had 22 items on the list, among them Noh and Kabuki theatre.
What was recognised
The inscription does not concern restaurant cooking, individual restaurants or any particular dish, and UNESCO does not certify restaurants or dishes. It describes a social practice: the skills, knowledge and customs by which Japanese households produce, prepare and share food, with respect for nature.
The Japanese government’s nomination set out four characteristics. The first is the diversity and freshness of ingredients, and respect for their natural flavours. The second is a balanced diet built on rice, in the pattern called ichiju sansai, one soup and three dishes. The third is the expression of natural beauty and of the changing seasons, in the choice of food, vessels and decoration. The fourth is the close link between food and the events of the year.
New Year is the principal example. Families prepare osechi, an array of dishes each with a meaning, packed in lacquered boxes, and pound rice into cakes. The knowledge passes from one generation to the next at home, and it is this transmission that the list is meant to protect.
The context
Cuisine is a recent addition to UNESCO’s idea of heritage. The gastronomic meal of the French, the Mediterranean diet, traditional Mexican cuisine and the Turkish ceremonial dish keskek were inscribed in earlier years. At the same session in Baku the committee also inscribed kimjang, the making and sharing of kimchi in South Korea.
The Japanese bid was made in the knowledge that the practice is under pressure at home. Convenience food and Western eating habits have changed the daily diet, especially among the young, and those who prepared the nomination have described the traditional table as being in a critical state. The inscription is intended to encourage teaching and awareness within Japan as much as recognition abroad.
For travellers
The word washoku is also used loosely, in Japan and abroad, for Japanese-style food in general, and for the many regional and restaurant cuisines of the country. The UNESCO entry is narrower: it concerns a cultural practice, not a style of restaurant. Visitors can see its principles in the multi-course dinner of a traditional restaurant or inn, where soup, raw fish, grilled and simmered dishes, rice and pickles follow a set order and the vessels change with the month, and in a plain set lunch of rice, miso soup, fish and vegetables. These are two among many ways it appears, and neither is the practice itself, which is found chiefly in the home.
The best way to understand the seasonal idea is to eat the same kind of meal at different times of year. Kyoto, the old capital, is the centre of the formal restaurant tradition, where a kaiseki dinner shows how one such meal is built.