Changes in the dietary culture in Omi-mura, Higashichikuma-gun, Nagano: A comparison of interviews conducted in 1941 and 2005

Abstract

The present study aims to reveal changes in the dietary culture of the farmers in Omi-mura, Higashichikuma-gun, Nagano, since the early Showa era. Six women who lived in the area for more than forty years and were involved in agriculture were interviewed in 2005. Located between Nagano and Matsumoto, Omi-mura had prospered for centuries through rice cultivation and sericulture. The area’s eating habits were essentially self-sufficient and people subsisted on rice and wheat products. Usually, miso soup and pickles, consisting of vegetables, edible wild plants, and edible fungi, formed the side dishes.

Beginning in the 1960s, agricultural practices such as fruit tree cultivation, vegetable cultivation, and stock raising rapidly increased while sericulture decreased. On the other hand, the number of youths who joined companies in search of cash income gradually increased. In a 1970 census, it was revealed that over half of the farmers’ main source of income was not farming, but other jobs. In addition to the change in occupation, the self-sufficient eating habits of the people changed to consumption dependent eating habits with the inclusion of an increased variety of foods. Some older farming families still continued with vegetable cultivation for private use, making preserved food and cooking traditional food. However, village collaboration in farming and events decreased, resulting in fewer occasions to cook together. As a result, the opportunity to pass on local food culture to the younger generation was lost. In order to overcome this, a group of farm village women began to sell local food at a store for local products and initiated a cooking class to pass on local food culture to the younger generation.