ABSTRACT
It is useful to proceed by looking at a central food event – a meal – from which we can expand the discussion to other food events as well. Every food event, like all evanescent art forms, differs from any other, but, notwithstanding this difference, there are categorical similarities which can be pursued. There are a number of types of food event within Japanese society”. That is an acceptable scholarly way to say that Japanese, as anyone else, eat in different contexts and on different occasions. We can however identify at least one core event – a meal – defined as a food event that has a regular appearance (or is expected to) in the life of any average individual, and which is both expected and necessary. In modern Japan, most people eat three main meals a day, though this has only fairly recently in this century become a norm, and in practical terms is true for almost all Japanese only since the post-war period.
