Japan's Shojin Ryori

About this book

For eight centuries, Japan's Buddhist temples have cooked without meat, without fish, without even fish stock — and built, on that refusal, one of the world's most complete plant cuisines. This guide covers the whole of shojin ryori in 200 entries: the ideas behind it, from the rule of not killing to Dogen's instructions for the monastery cook; the temple kitchen itself, its storehouse, garden, knives and pickle barrels; the pantry of tofu, yuba, fu, konnyaku, kelp and dried shiitake; Kyoto, the cuisine's capital of temple restaurants and tofu quarters; the classic dishes, from sesame tofu and simmered tofu to mock eel and the monk's soup kenchinjiru; the regions, including fucha, the Chinese-born banquet tradition of the Obaku school; the ritual year of New Year boxes, Obon spirit meals, funerals and festivals; and the modern world of shukubo temple stays, city shojin masters and home practice. Every entry follows the same four fields — the tradition and its ground, the making and keeping, the taste and texture, and where you meet it today with the one official check to make before you travel or book — so any two entries can be compared in seconds. This book claims no health effects for its subject and repeats no legend as fact; it documents the dishes, the techniques, the kitchens and the culture exactly. Written and produced in Japan by a Japanese author and publisher.

Written and created in Japan by Japanese author Aki Wakamatsu. Published by Takikawa TOKOTOKO Kids LLC, a Japanese publisher in Hokkaido, Japan. Authentic Japanese content, carefully made in Japan — not mass-produced.