Discovering Local Cuisine Keeping the Okyaku Culture Alive — Kochi Prefecture

1) Kochi dishes use a lot of vinegar

2) Feasts featuring fish

3) Traditional dishes that are still served today

Although there are many characteristics of Kochi cuisine, one unique feature of Kochi Prefecture food culture is the okyaku culture. In Kochi, a banquet is a friendly social function where participants freely eat food and drink without paying heed to hierarchical relationships.

The okyaku culture is related to the samurai method of honzen-shiki (formal-type meals) around 1800 during the Edo Period (1603-1868). During these meals, servings for multiple participants were frequently served on large, expensive platters. These platters are called sawachi, and the Tosa Clan issued a regulation to limit consumption forbidding the selling and purchasing of these sawachi platters. In other words, sawachi was something that was out of the reach of commoners. As time went on and the Meiji period (1868-1912) established equality for all people, affluent farmers and merchants started to seek expensive sawachi platters in pottery styles such as Imari, Kutani and Arita. Banquets featuring lavish food assorted on these plates where people would casually help themselves to the dishes, dine and make conversation freely became a standard practice. This is the origin of the current okyaku culture.

Sawachi dishes, which are essential to the okyaku culture feature beautiful assortments of blessings of the land and sea. There is a wide variety of sawachi dishes, such as nama sawachi platters featuring raw foods such as sashimi, and kumimono sawachi platters featuring sushi, simmered food, fish cakes, deep-fried food, fruit and sweets, and some platters featuring one main dish such as steamed red bream. According to Matsuzaki, the scale of banquets is expressed by how many sawachi platters are presented—a sign of how crucial sawachi platters are to the banquet culture of Kochi.

Sawachi banquets proceed with greetings and a toast, after which everyone freely helps themselves to the food while drinking with anyone and everyone. Before long, participants start to offer drinks and receive drinks in return from each other. According to Matsuzaki, “The okyaku culture of the past used to have not only banquet participants, but passersby were also allowed into the banquet room to enjoy food and drinks,” which is very surprising!

In the past, farm work used to be shared through groups called “yui,” and cooperatives within these groups called “shirugumi” used to help with work related to ceremonial occasions. However, yui and shirugumi ceased to exist due to changes in society. As they were no longer able to share work and help from preparation to tidying up, sawachi banquets moved out of homes to be held at venues such as hotels. However, Matsuzaki says, “Although the sawachi dishes were gone, dining while interacting with others still has the atmosphere of a “sawachi banquet” in a different style.”

Of the many dishes of Kochi Prefecture, here are some that are still frequently prepared at home in daily life.

Matsuzaki, who was born during the Taisho period (1912-1926), believed that it was “necessary to enrichen lives through science” after the war, which pushed her to study culinary science at university. However, she notes that although we do benefit from science, “There is a sense of danger in modern society, in which children only know processed and ready-made food.” She established the Tosa Traditional Food Society in 2003. She also made proposals to the prefectural government to establish the Tosa Cuisine Inheritor system to hand down the food culture of Kochi Prefecture, along with the Association to Promote Tosa Sushi which aimed for the industrialization of Tosa Sushi (including Inakazushi) with cooperation from the private and public sectors, and both of these goals were later achieved. Her activities in discovering ways to cook traditional Kochi food, and organizing them to be handed down to the following generations was highly regarded, and the Tosa Traditional Food Society was selected for the 27th Koshin Grand Prize (sponsored by the Kochi Newspaper Public Welfare Organization) on January 2020, resulting in her currently working on a book. Matsuzaki referred to one of the great gourmet cities of the world when asked about future prospects, saying “How about we aim to be the ‘second San Sebastian’ by launching various plans in both private and public sectors that maximize the appeal of the Prefecture’s food ingredients.” She had some powerful words to tell us, saying, “The senior age group needs to be the one to hand down the traditional food culture of Kochi as a culture and value to be preserved, so that younger generations will find interest in it.”

The local cuisine of Kochi Prefecture, handed down through the years, is still going strong thanks to the passionate people who love the region’s food and an inviting dining culture which allows warm interaction.