Mentaiko and the Japanese People

Today many Japanese are fond of eating mentaiko (明太子; seasoned cod roe) with white rice. The history of this food that has become an everyday dietary choice for many can be reconstructed through documents that provide insight into modern Asia.

Mentaiko was originally eaten on the Korean peninsula. Raw materials of mentaiko is the ovary walleye pollock, which is called 'myeongtae' (명태). Usually angled in winter, the walleye pollock are typically frozen and dried outdoors and their inner organs, which go bad quickly, are removed. The dried cod is called 'bugeo' (북어), and the high quality ones are referred to as 'hwangtae' (황태). They are popular foods used in Korean rituals.

Japanese fishing boats traveled to Korea in the Meiji era, after the Japan-Korea Treaty of 1876 was signed, and fishermen found the walleye pollock cod to be a valuable aquatic resource. [Image 1-1] and [Image 1-2] are from reports on the fishing of a cod variety named walleye pollock. The reports were drawn up by the Japanese Consulate in Wonsan, on the Korean east coast (Reference Code: B11091838300).

Salted cod roe with red peppers are called 'myeongran jeot' (명란젓) and it is thought that they have been eaten in Korea since the 17th century. Myeongran jeot appealed to Japanese tastes and a report on the 1900 fishing industry, by the Korean Association of Fishery, details that "salted roe are sold widely. They are delicious but expensive" (Reference Code: B11091851500, 52nd image).

By 1907, myeongran jeot, which had been consumed among Korean families, started getting exported to Japan via Busan to Shimonoseki. The item 'walleye pollock roe' appeared first in a1914 list of foreign trade statistics made by the Korea Governor- General's Office (Reference Code: A06032044100, 13th image). The name mentaiko, as Japanese call the food today, came to be widely accepted.

A 1917 trade manual published by the Korea Governor- General's Office suggests that the roe from the cod 'walleye pollack' had earlier been consumed only by Koreans, but then its market extended to the Kansai region in Japan and for Dalian in China. And that book says that this market growth occurred in the beginning of the Taisho era, because Japanese people had resided in Korea and came to like the food. Once mentaiko was produced as a sideline of pollock fisheries, manufacturing method was crude, there was what the state had become worse. Nevertheless demand was increased, guilds were organized in order to standardize and improve quality (Reference Code: A06032043800)(see [Image 2-1] and [Image 2-2]).

The number of manufacturers and sellers of this roe increased annually, mainly in Busan, due to growing demand in Japan. In the Taisho era, Japanese people had come to be familiar with mentaiko imported through Shimonoseki. According to moreover, 1919 report from the Japanese Consulate at Fengtian, China show that mentaiko had also been imported from Korea for Japanese families living in this city (Reference Code: B11091966800, 11th-16th images).

From August 1945, after the Second World War, Japanese living in Korea were repatriated. They could bring only a small amount of baggage and memories of their lives abroad. Once the people returned to Shimonoseki or Fukuoka, they began to make the mentaiko they had grown accustomed to eating in Korea. In Shimonoseki, in 1946 or 1947, Kozo Yamane (山根孝三), who had repatriated from Busan, sold mentaiko made from Hokkaido cod roe that he covered with red pepper. Yamane also worked to support mentaiko manufacturers in Shimonoseki. Another repatriate who went on to promote mentaiko consumption was Toshio Kawahara (川原俊夫). He was born and raised in Busan during the Japanese reign, migrated to Manchuria, drafted into the Army there, and was demobilized at the end of the war. He repatriated from Manchuria with a wife and children, and they opened a grocery store in Nakasu, Hakata. Kawahara promoted research and development of pickled mentaiko in a liquid seasoning with red peppers, and, in 1957, he began to sell it. Soon, the number of mentaiko makers increased and this product became well-known in Japan as a local specialty of Fukuoka. This story about the topic was featured in the television drama Mentai Piriri (Television Nishinippon Corporation, 2013).

The historical roots of mentaiko in Korea can be examined in documents accessible through JACAR. The story of the food's reputation growing among Japanese as well as their eventual repatriation after World War Two can be researched along with other related topics, including politics, diplomacy, and military histories. While many influential and well-known politicians, soldiers, and industrialists are depicted in JACAR files, there are also lesser known individuals who have lived in difficult times and have made a part of history. When you enter everyday keywords into the JACAR database, you can find many surprising discoveries to be made about their historical backgrounds.

[Bibliography]

Imanishi, Hajime 今西一, and Nakatani, Mitsuo 中谷三男, Mentaiko kaihatsu-shi: Sono rūtsu wo saguru 明太子開発史―そのルーツを探る [Develop history of Mentaiko: Seeking its roots]. Seizan-do Shoten, 2008. (In Japanese)

Kawahara, Takeshi 川原健, Mentaiko wo tsukutta otoko: Fukuya sōgyōsya Kawahara Toshio no jinsei to keiei 明太子をつくった男―ふくや創業者・川原俊夫の人生と経営 [The man made Mentaiko: The life and management of Toshio Kawahara, the founder of Fukuya]. Kaichosha, 2013. (In Japanese)

Shimamura, Takanori 島村恭則 (ed.), Hikiage-sha no sengo 引揚者の戦後 [Postwar days of the repatriate]. Shin-yo-sha, 2013. (In Japanese)

Takekuni, Tomoyasu 竹国友康, Hamo no tabi, Mentai no yume: Nikkann sakana kōryū-shi ハモの旅、メンタイの夢―日韓さかな交流史 [Conger pike's journey, Walleye pllock's Dream: The history of fish exchange between Japan and Korea]. Iwanami Shoten, 2013. (In Japanese)

"Crossing the Oceans: An Exhibition on Japanese Studying Abroad from the Past to Present"

This exhibition consisted of four parts: "The Ancient History of Japanese Envoys to Sui and Tang Dynasty China"; "The Sixteenth Century's Tensho Embassy"; "The Nineteenth Century’s Opening of Japan"; and "Our Contemporary Era". We explored these different historical periods in the exhibition with a range of panels, books, DVDs, chronological tables and websites that emphasized the experiences of Japanese students living abroad in many eras and countries.

We integrated digital media whenever possible into this exhibit and so we installed a computer for visitors to freely explore "The Iwakura Mission as Seen in Official Documents". We also incorporated a web based chronological table into the exhibit, which was visited by many individuals including a group researching the Iwakura Mission. A number of visitors were interested in the computer setup among piles of books and they took a close look at "The Iwakura Mission as Seen in Official Documents". Drawn into the online exhibit, the visitors gained a great deal of information. By integrating JACAR's web exhibition, we could enrich the content of our exhibition and approach it from additional angles.

[Publicity Work]

-Overseas

-Domestic

[Visitors]