Abstract

CONTEMPORARY JAPAN 259 Jasmin Rückert Heinrich Heine Universität Düsseldorf rueckej@hhu.de © 2020 Jasmin Rückert https://doi.org/10.1080/18692729.2020.1735608 Branding Japanese food: from Meibutsu to Washoku, by Katarzyna J. Cwiertka and Miho Yasuhara, Honolulu, University of Hawaiʻi Press, 2020, xiii + 126 pp. Hardback: $68.00 ISSN:9780824881221 Branding Japanese Food: From Meibutsu to Washoku is published by the University of Hawaiʻi Press. The book offers numerous valuable insights into food culture in Japan and into some of the myths behind it. The book consists of five chapters, an introduction and conclusion. The authors previously published a Japanese language book titled, Himerareta washokushi (The hidden history of washoku) in 2016. Their Japanese publication was motivated by their frustration due to the failure of Japanese food historians to speak out in relation to what the authors believe to be a manipulation of historical facts in the inscription of Japanese food on the UNESCO Representative List of the Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity in 2013 (xi). The current English publication has expanded on their Japanese publication and broadened its scope by providing a historical analysis of branding Japanese food, including further research by the authors into tourism in early modern Japan. On 20 December 2013, Prime Minister