[Serve Bitterness on a Spring Plate]
It is the season to enjoy the taste of spring. There is a saying, "Serve bitterness on a spring plate." In the book "Shokoku Yosei Hou," written by Sagen Ishizuka, a doctor and pharmacist in the Meiji era (1868-1912), it is written, "Eat bitter in spring, vinegared in summer, spicy in autumn, and oil in winter." (Eat bitter in spring, sour in summer, pungent in fall, and fat in winter, and eat what is available in each season)
Ishizuka Sagen was the first person in Japan to advocate "Shokuiku" (food education), which consists of six precepts. The six are,
(1) Nutrition education at home is important.
(2) Our bodies are made of what we eat.
(3) Humans are grain animals that eat mainly grains
(4) Eat whole foods (shin-do-fuji)
(5) Eat local, fresh, seasonal foods for local production for local consumption
(6) Eat a well-balanced diet of everything
Sagen warned that the westernization of food and food culture during the Meiji Era (1868-1912) would lead to an increase in illnesses in the future due to the disruption of the traditional Japanese diet. Sagen's disciple, Sakurazawa Jyoichi, based on Sagen's dietary method, developed it as "macrobiotics" and preached a longevity method based on the idea of harmonizing human beings with nature and achieving a healthy lifestyle through a diet based on traditional Japanese food.
Speaking of spring bitterness, there are wild vegetables such as butterbur sprouts, taranobuds, and udo (udo), as well as rape blossoms. As the temperature rises in spring, insects and fungi become more active, and wild vegetables produce "bitterness" and "acridity" to protect themselves from these insects and fungi. The bitterness comes from ingredients called "vegetable alkaloids" and "polyphenols. They act as antioxidants, improve the liver's filtration function, detoxify the body to expel wastes, and promote metabolism. Animals that hibernate prepare for hibernation by accumulating nutrients before the cold winter. In the same way, humans accumulate fat to protect themselves from the winter cold. It is said that the first thing bears eat when they wake up from hibernation is "butterbur. Bears instinctively take in the bitterness of butterbur to awaken their sleeping bodies.
Spring is a season when the autonomic nervous system is easily unbalanced due to the temperature difference and atmospheric pressure fluctuations, and it is easy to get sick. Let's detoxify our bodies with spring vegetables to improve our condition and create health through food.
About a 7-minute walk from our showroom in Ginza, there is a standing noodle restaurant called "Yomoda Soba. With homemade noodles and no chemical seasonings, they have a menu of wild vegetables and wild plants from Aomori, and are currently serving Fukinotou Ten-soba. Why not stop by when you visit our Ginza showroom?
Yomoda Soba
http://www.yomoda-soba.com/menu/sanyasou.html
Nakamura Douki's Copper-Made Tempura Pot
https://www.shokunin.com/en/nakamuradouki/tempura.html
References
https://ja.wikipedia.org/wiki/石塚左玄
https://ja.wikipedia.org/wiki/マクロビオティック
https://www.pref.fukui.lg.jp/
