Seafoods are indispensable to Japanese cuisine for transnational audiences. This status is enshrined in UNESCO's 2014 World Heritage distinction—one that declares fish to be an integral part of washoku. Within Japan, however, traditional culinary culture is in transition as the consumption of meat in recent years has overtaken that of fish. Alongside the decline in fishers and fish, seafood cooking culture is in crisis. Fewer cooks are willing or even able to process and cook fish at home, putting government agencies and chefs alike on high alert. How are seafood advocates attempting to address the ensuing intertwined ecological, gastronomic, and cultural transformations? Rather than a highly technocratic approach that oftentimes emerges in environmental projects, contemporary responses to these changing conditions have enlisted the help of cultural icons like Sazae-san, Sakana-kun, and traditional rakugo poetry. This talk analyzes projects designed to remake cultural tastes through the substitution of certain undesirable fish for other more beloved species. Based on ethnographic research conducted in 2022-2023, the talk delineates the diverse ways that chefs and home cooks create meaning and interpret materiality as they negotiate and enact such substitutions in their restaurants and in their homes.
The lecture will be followed by comments from our discussant, environmental anthropologist and researcher at the Oslo School of Environmental Humanities Pierre du Plessis.
C. Anne Claus is is a cultural anthropologist who researches environmental issues in contemporary seascapes, primarily in Japan. She is an associate professor of anthropology at American University in Washington, D.C., USA. Her publications include Drawing the Sea Near: Satoumi and Coral Reef Conservation in Okinawa (University of Minnesota Press 2020).
