5 Edo-period dishes you can (and should) try in modern Tokyo
The Edo period saw the building blocks of modern Japanese cuisine take shape. Even to this day, you can still find its influence across Tokyo and beyond
Japan’s Edo period (1603–1868) is defined by the shogunal decree of national isolation that began in 1633 with the first of a series of edicts; the country only began to reopen in 1853, 220 years later. It was during this era that the Japanese honed their culinary skills to the point of creating traditional cooking and eating practices unique to them. Even now, these remain basically unchanged, and the majority of traditional Japanese dishes eaten today date back to those years of seclusion.
The term Edo period derives from the city of Edo (now Tokyo), where the shogunate’s government was based. As towns and cities began to thrive during isolation, merchants acquired wealth and status. Together with the cities’ artisan labourers, they wielded the largest influence on the rise of restaurants and snack shops in Edo, Kyoto and Osaka. It was in these cities that many foodways developed and then slowly spread across Japan.
In 1657, two-thirds of the city of Edo was destroyed by fire. The large influx of workers who came to rebuild it gave rise to a boom in casual eateries. Snack shops, in the form of stalls or mobile vendors catering to the common people, centred on one type of cuisine: usually a light, inexpensive meal of soba noodles, tempura, sushi or eel. These dishes still exist in Tokyo today, but you’ll find they have become more refined and, in most cases, are no longer inexpensive.
Miso (fermented soy bean paste) and shoyu (Japanese soy sauce) were the main seasonings during the Edo era, and still are now. The techniques of making shoyu, as well as the alcohols sake, shochu and mirin, were honed in this period, just as oil extraction production became more sophisticated and tofu-related products and sweets became more mainstream. But it’s not only about flavours. Much of Japan’s restaurant culture was firmly solidified in the Edo period, and its legacy is still seen across modern-day Tokyo and beyond.
Five Edo-period dishes you should try (and where in Tokyo to find them)
1. Tempura
Tempura (battered seafood and veg) became popular in the mid-Edo period as a street snack. Morsels of fish, prawns and veg were stuck on bamboo skewers, coated with batter, then deep-fried and eaten on the spot. As the tempura boom took hold, the batter shifted to flour mixed with water and shoyu for vegetables, or a simple flour dusting for fish, resembling the veil-thin batter you’ll commonly see today.
Where to eat: Tempura Fukamachi, 2-5-2 Kyobashi, Chuo City.
2. Edomae sushi
Edomae sushi consisted of rice flavoured with akasu (derived from aged sake lees) topped with fish either soused in vinegar, marinated in miso or shoyu, or lightly grilled. Back then, pieces of nigiri (rice topped with fish) were large (about 40g), and were meant to be eaten in a few bites while standing. Leaner fish, such as gizzard shad, horse mackerel, sea bream and whitebait caught in Tokyo Bay, were preferred.
Where to eat: Sushi Tou, 2-24-8, Nishiazabu, Minato City.
3. Unagi (eel)
It was in the mid-18th century that the kabayaki style – filleting, skewering, steaming, then dipping the unagi (eel) in a sweet shoyu sauce and grilling – developed. This preparation has since remained virtually unchanged.
Where to eat: Unagi Yamanochaya, 2-10-6 Nagatacho, Chiyoda City.
4. Oden
Oden is a one-pot dish of slowly simmered daikon, potatoes, deep-fried tofu, konnyaku (konjac) and hard-boiled eggs in a sweet shoyu dashi sauce. Fish cakes, taro and octopus are added and the dish is eaten with mustard and shichimi togarashi (seven-spice mix). In Edo times, however, oden originally took the form of tofu dengaku, grilled tofu skewers with spicy miso.
Where to eat: Kagurazaka Esaki, 3-6 Kagurazaka, Shinjuku City.
5. Soba noodles
The birth of the waterwheel created a boom in soba flour production in the mid-Edo period. The advent of nihachi soba also changed the cooking method, enhancing the flavour. It all added to the popularity of soba noodles and the upsurge of soba stalls in Tokyo. Classic soba consists of freshly boiled hand-made noodles served on a flat basket (zaru) with a small cup of sweet shoyu broth (tsuyu) for dipping.
Where to eat: Sobaya Mori-iro, 5-10-8 Omorinishi, Ota City.
About the author
Food writer Nancy Singleton Hachisu is the author of the 2018 cookery book classic Japan: The Cookbook (Phaidon; £40), which features 400 recipes organised by course, and its sequel, Japan: The Vegetarian Cookbook (Phaidon; £40), which divides 250 Japanese vegetarian dishes by cooking style. Both are available to buy now.
Read next:
Off the Page podcast: Back to the future in Tokyo – the city where old meets new
