The influence of Chinese cuisine on the acceptance of bean sprouts and the Chinese cabbage in Japan

Abstract

The bean sprouts (moyashi) and the Chinese cabbage (hakusai) were introduced to Japan from China and both vegetables are often used in Japanese and Chinese cuisine nowadays. Although the two were introduced in Japan at different times, the period of their spread was the same-between the Great Kanto earthquake (1923) and the late 1930s. That time coincided with the popularization and development of Chinese cuisine in Japan.

The purpose of this article is to examine the differences between the spread of the two vegetables, the influence of Chinese cuisine on the process and their uses in Japanese, Western and Chinese cuisines on the basis of newspapers, magazines and cookbooks published from the 1920s to the early 1930s.