---
title: 'What is Japanese food? WASHOKU explained and its evolution  〜和食〜  | easy Japanese home cooking'
source: 'https://youtube.com/watch?v=Ireil53PgoE'
video_id: 'Ireil53PgoE'
date: 2026-06-30
duration_sec: 1140
---

# What is Japanese food? WASHOKU explained and its evolution  〜和食〜  | easy Japanese home cooking

> Source: [What is Japanese food? WASHOKU explained and its evolution  〜和食〜  | easy Japanese home cooking](https://youtube.com/watch?v=Ireil53PgoE)

## Summary



## Transcript

welcome to taiga's kitchen today i'm
going to explain you about different
aspects of japanese food so in the last
video of japanese geography i got a lot
of good feedbacks so i decided to go
further and make more of these videos
and since this is a cooking channel i
thought it was fair to make a video on
japanese food because there are so many
dishes and so many aspects and so many
different types of japanese food and
nowadays almost everybody knows sushi as
a japanese food or like miso soup and
perhaps ramen noodle or gyoza or onigiri
or some sort but there are a lot more
than that and also because in this
channel i've been cooking a lot of
chinese influence dishes korean style
dishes and also a lot of western style
dishes i even made japanese style pasta
so you might be a bit confused what
really is japanese food or like what
really entitles japanese food and so in
this video i'll be talking about three
main topics first i'm going to talk
about japanese food in general but also
what makes a dish japanese food and
secondly i'll be talking about different
categories of japanese food primarily in
accordance with the history of japan
answered why is japanese food considered
healthy or is it really healthy so i
hope this video helps you to understand
japanese food and maybe get more
appreciation for the japanese food so
without further ado
let's get started
[Music]
so the first topic is what entitles a
dish as a japanese food japanese food or
in japanese washoku which is literally
translated as japanese food was
acknowledged by unesco in 2013 as an
intangible cultural heritage of humanity
and as the japanese government was
applying for this they picked four
aspects that makes up washoku one is a
respect for variety and fresh
ingredients
two the nutritional balance three
expression of the nature and the four
seasons and four close tie with the
seasonal celebrations so first aspect
with respect to the variety of fresh
ingredients so as you may have already
saw in the last video of japanese
geography japan holds a variety of
geographical features as well as
different climates this allows the
country japan even though the soil is
not as rich as many other countries in
the world to hold a variety of different
ingredients we also have a lot of
mountains fields and also ocean so we
are able to gather different ingredients
from different parts of japan and
because of the harsh geographical
features we have a big respect towards
nature and that's big respect for the
food that we are able to receive from
the nature and therefore within washoku
or japanese food it's very very
important that we do justice for the
ingredients and this is also connected
with the buddhist philosophy and seeing
not only the animals but also plants as
lives and therefore we try to bring out
as much of the ingredients as possible
and we also try to throw away as little
ingredients as possible
and therefore in comparative like french
or chinese cuisine where they use a lot
of spices or sauces japanese food try to
keep it simple this is really to enjoy
the fine flavor of each specific
ingredients and within the japanese
culture and japanese cuisine eating or
cooking is considered one of the most
important aspect of life because we see
eating as an exchange of lives we are
receiving a lives from the nature so
that we can live further in order to
make the world a little bit better place
and that's also why we
hold our hands like this and say
itadakimasu in the beginning and also
gotso samadeshta at the end as a small
prayer to saying thank you for all the
lives and all the work that is put into
for the food so the second aspect of
washoku
is the nutrition balance now with a
scientifical advancement we know that
our body needs different nutrients
vitamins proteins fats and carbohydrates
and whatnot and for a longest time
people didn't know that consciously
about the nutrients but probably through
the experience people kind of knew that
eating different types of food helps you
stay healthy and also because in japan
there are a lot of different ingredients
it was very important in japanese
cuisine that you have a variety of
ingredients so in japanese cuisine you
try to have inside one meal some from
the mountains something from the sea
some leaves some root vegetable fruit
vegetable and of course always rice
maybe some kind of pickles and so even
without the science difficult
backgrounds japanese people somehow knew
that it's very important for your body
to stay healthy that you pick up
different nutrients and thus for the
different ingredients and in japanese
cuisine there's a phrase called ichiju
sansai meaning one soup and three dishes
so if you go to restaurant in japan and
when you order a meal you always have a
rice and then to that you almost always
have some kind of soup and then the main
dish and to that at least two kind of
side dishes mostly vegetable side dishes
so in washoku it is very important to
have variety of ingredients and does
several dishes on one meal so the third
aspect is expression of nature and the
four seasons so in japanese culture
cooking was considered as art form and
chef was considered as an artist where
in many cultures shepherd consider as
merely a servant so in washoku it is
very important that the dishes are
presented with aesthetic not just any
pretty beautiful way but instead it
should be a representative of the nature
and also the season as you may have saw
in the video of japanese geography japan
has four distinct seasons and each of
these seasons are divided into six small
seasons and so through one year you have
24 seasons actually in japan and
therefore when you go to more of the
high-end restaurants which i'll explain
later you have a really beautiful
presentation of the nature of the season
of that time and that's also another
reason why we have different kind of
plates in western restaurants the plates
are usually quite simple just white and
round but in japan we have different
shapes different form and also often
with different material you have
porcelain you have glass you may use
some wood or bamboo or sometimes even
just some kind of leaf as a plate and we
also do a lot of foraging like i show in
the video of horsetail on the firm we
also have a lot of ingredients that is
only available in certain seasons and so
if you go to japanese supermarket
there's always a section where they sell
some season of food yes of course with
technology you can grow pretty much
everything throughout the whole year but
the japanese people prefer more seasonal
ingredients because ingredients that is
in the season tastes the best and also
has the most nutrients and so a lot of
japanese people are keen on what
vegetable and more fish are in season so
the fourth and the last aspect of
washoku is the strong connection with
seasonal festivals in japanese culture
pretty much every month we have some
kind of seasonal festival and most of
those festivals would have some special
dish that we pretty much only eat in
that festival starting with the new
years which is one of the most important
festival in japan i made a vlog on that
so you should check that out there i'm
showing different cultural things that
we do in the new year and also as a
preparation for the new year and the
special dish of osechidori which over 99
of japanese people eat as we come in in
the new years and most of these dishes
are only served in the new year's and in
march we have girls day in may we have
boys day in july we have so-called
tanabata in september we have otsukimi
this is also connected with the third
aspect but washoku is also very
important for the seasonal celebrations
so these four aspects are the reason why
japanese food is special and why
japanese food is considered as a
intangible heritage of humanity and not
just collection of dishes
now let's go into the second topic which
is a different category of japanese food
so three categories are the traditional
japanese food semi-modern japanese food
and the modern japanese food so this is
a categorization that i made up
according to the history of japan but i
think this just really represents how
japanese food was developed and also
evolved throughout i think it helps you
to understand the japanese food more so
the first category of traditional
japanese food includes all the food
before the year 1868 when the japanese
government opened the country to outside
world so until that point japan was
under a policy of so-called sakoku which
means locking in the country restricting
all the imports and exports with the
outside world except for china portugal
and holland and only in one port in
nagasaki which is all the way south west
of japan during this time of sakoku
japan were able to appreciate over 250
years of peace where there were no wars
no conflicts which is known as pax
tokugawana because during that time the
government was called tokugawa bakufu
and during this time with very little
contact with outside world happened very
similar to the galapagos effect where a
lot of japanese culture boomed so a lot
of japanese culture you may know were
actually developed in this period of
pakistan so like kimono kabuki no
theater sumo ukiyoe sado or tea ceremony
ikebana or flower arrangement and also a
lot of japanese dishes were invented for
example the sushi that you know in the
form like nigirizushi or makizushi was
invented during this period in edo or
tokyo because it was very close to the
sea and was where the government was was
the capital of japan at the time was a
lot of wealth were also there so people
were able to get the fresh fish and also
another category tempura it was actually
originally came from portugal the name
tempura comes from temperature it means
like to mix or to cook until that point
japanese people didn't know about deep
frying but the people saw the portuguese
people we took that culture and invented
tempura out of that also key aspect of
this traditional food is the lack of
animal meat except for chicken because
the buddhist tradition prohibited people
to eat four-legged animals and so until
that point uh japanese people didn't eat
any pork and beef and so if it has pork
or beef then it's not traditional
japanese food so all the food that are
included in this category are like udon
or soba noodles natto a lot of pickles
sushi and tempura of course yakitori
because chicken was two-legged animal so
it was okay to eat that una don and a
lot of the fish dishes and also within
this traditional japanese food there are
also some subcategories one is called
shojin yori which was actually invented
by the buddhist monks buddhist monks
were following the strict rules of
buddhism so they were not allowed to eat
animals or fish and so shojin yodi is a
strict vegan diet and so if you're vegan
then you should go try to find some
troji restaurants if you go to japan
because finding vegan dishes in japan is
quite difficult and the second
subcategory is called kaisekiriori so
kaisekiyo is a high-end course meal and
so it starts with an appetizer and they
have first dish second dish third dish
they usually have like five to ten
dishes they usually cost about fifty
dollars or fifty euro for lunch and for
dinner it's usually above 100 to to go
up to like 500
or euro per person so it is very pricey
but if you happen to go to japan i think
you should definitely try this because
the experience is definitely worth it
and then another topic category is
wagashi which later means japanese snack
or japanese sweets these are like
daifuku mochi dango oshiruko senbei or
rice crackers manju and a variety of
so-called neriki which is primarily made
with uncle but representing different
aspects of nature or like fruits and
it's quite very beautiful and these are
usually served on the side of a tea
ceremony now let's go into the second
category of semi-modern japanese suit so
these are the dishes that were invented
after the opening of country to before
the end of the world war ii so after
opening the country all the western
culture came in the main thing that
influenced japanese food was the habit
of eating meat so the dish of sukiyaki
or shabu-shabu was invented this time
and also a lot of nabe or hot pot dishes
and within this semi-traditional
japanese food there's a subcategory of
so called yoshoku which means western
style japanese food so these are
invented by the chefs who are working at
the western style restaurants so those
includes like tonkatsu from cutlet
koroque or the original name is crockett
omoraisu so combining rice in the omelet
a japanese style hamburg or like the
curry rice so even though curry is
originally from india because at that
time curry were introduced to japan
through the british people so we kind of
consider curry as a more western food
and therefore is in the category of
western japanese food and the last
category is the modern japanese food and
this is all the food that were invented
after the world war ii as world war ii
happened and we were in war with primary
against america china and britain so a
lot of the outside ingredients were
banned but after we lost the war at the
year 1945 the united states came in and
occupied japan for actually seven years
and during that time japan was very very
poor and america at that time helped us
redevelop our country the united states
brought us a lot of wheat and also milk
products half of that was trying to help
us about half of that is probably so
that america has more export and through
this importer wheat flour we invented a
subcategory of this
which means powder or flour products so
this includes okonomiyaki takoyaki
yakisoba which is all primarily made
from flour and there's also another
subcategory called chuca which means
chinese food because before the war we
occupy quite a large part of china and
as we lost the war a lot of people came
back from there and brought the culture
from there and that's why we have ramen
noodle and gyoza as a japanese food even
though they were originally from china
this culture of chinese food evolved in
japan further and came out to ramen
noodle so hopefully this categorization
of japanese food helps you understand
different aspects the different
historical backgrounds of japanese food
and maybe next time you cook japanese
food or when you go to japanese
restaurant you can kind of think of from
which era or which category these dishes
are from and then you may be able to
have a little trivial conversation with
your friends
and now let's go to the last topic of
why japanese food is healthy or is it
really healthy so compared to many
western countries and especially the us
the obesity rate in japan is very very
low so you may have seen like a street
of japan in like video and some tv or
something most people you see are very
slim and japan still holds the high life
expectancy of 84 years old here i'm
going to talk about different aspects
and different arguments of why japanese
food is healthy and i'll let you be the
judge of it the first aspect is very
little or no fat in japanese food so
there are actually three ways to make
something savory one is using fat oil
two is using sugar and the third is use
of umami in japanese food we try to
avoid the first one so think of some
dish that you really crave for maybe
that is hamburger or like fries or
potato chips pizza or like donuts and
you realize a lot of them contain a lot
of fat and they are very delicious and
savory and it's not to say that you
shouldn't eat any of those but in
traditional japanese food except for
tempura we use barely any fat and
instead we are conscious about umami
which was acknowledged recently as a
fifth flavor we incorporate this umami
aspect in our cooking to do that in
japanese cooking we use a lot of dashi
which is a combination of seaweed and
fish broth if you want to know more in
detail of mommy or dashi please go watch
this i'm explaining in detail of what is
really umami and how these are
incorporated in japanese food so the
second aspect is rice over wheat so in
japan a lot of people eat rice pretty
much every day there are also even a lot
of people who eats rice pretty much
every meal i love rice and i eat more
rice than wheat products there are some
studies that shows that rice is easier
to be digested but also raise the blood
sugar not as much in compared to wheat
products and i don't think rice or wheat
is not necessarily the rice and wheat
themselves but rather what you eat them
with so the wheat product like bread or
pasta you almost always have some fat
content in them and you will also never
ever eat wheat product as it is without
any sauce or additive to it but rice
like a really good rice you could really
eat it without any added without any
topping to it and a lot of the side dish
for the rice they don't necessarily have
to be that fatty a lot of them are quite
very simple like pickles natto like miso
soup none of them have fat in them think
of eating bread or pasta just with
pickles or like some vegetable somehow
it doesn't work and the third aspect is
fish over meat a lot of people may know
that fish is more healthy than meat and
the main reason why is because of the
melting temperature of the meat fat and
the fish fat b-fat has the melting point
above 40 degrees pork fat between 30 and
40 and chicken fat between 30 and 35 so
that means b-fat is always as a solid
form in your body and therefore this can
be cause of your blood system to be
clotted whereas the melting point of the
fish fat is between 10 to 20 degrees and
also the animal fat is high in saturated
fatty acid high consumption of the
saturated fatty acid raise the risk of
high cholesterol and cardiovascular
diseases and the fish acid is
unsaturated fat and therefore fish fat
do not have any of these risks and also
a lot of fish is also high in dha blue
black fish like sardines mackerel
herring and tuna are also very high in
this and this dha is said to help to
make your brain more active and the
seafood is also high in taurine and epa
which actually decrease the cholesterol
in your bloodstream so eating fish is
actually much more healthy than meat
but this information will never go into
the mainstream media especially in the
western cultures because those media are
usually funded by the meat industries
and they don't want people to know that
the fish is healthier than meat which
will decrease the consumption of meat so
fourth aspect is a fermented food so
japanese food contain a lot of the
fermented food of course that doesn't
mean that other countries don't have
fermented food like a lot of cheese or
pickle or also fermented food but
japanese cuisine contain a lot more of
those fermented ingredients especially
if you look at the seasoning so soy
sauce miso meating sake pretty much all
the japanese seasonings are made through
fermentation nowadays these fermented
foods are considered healthy because
they contain a lot of probiotics small
microorganisms to keep your digestive
system healthy and to help you digest as
well and also this process of
fermentation helps the ingredients
enrich the flavor and also this helps
also use less fat in your food and the
fifth aspect is drinking tea over soda
and juice so in japanese household we
would pretty much always have some kind
of tea in the fridge nowadays it may be
a bit changing most families will never
drink soda or juice during a meal
there's sometimes green tea or roasted
green tea but often is a roasted barley
tea this contains no sugar no caffeine
this also doesn't kill the flavor of the
food and as we know from many studies
that a lot of sugar intake is unhealthy
so in japan it's quite uncommon to drink
juice or soda with your meal and instead
we pretty much drink a lot of tea and
the last aspect is a balanced meal when
you see a japanese meal you would see
that you don't have just like one or two
dish but instead you have a main dish
rice and soup and then to that you have
at least like two or three more
vegetable side dishes and i don't know
how it is in other countries but in
japan every school would have a subject
called kateka which means household
subject inside koteca we learned to sew
or like use the sewing machine we
learned how to clean the house or like
how to clean a toilet sometimes how we
manage the money but a lot of times
spent for learning about cooking and
also for this each school to have like a
cooking room and then we learn different
basic japanese dishes and to that we
also learn the nutritional values of
different ingredients how it is
important to take in different variation
of ingredients and this idea kind of
comes back to the first aspect of
washoku there's also another reason why
japanese food is considered healthy
so this is the end of this video hope
you enjoyed it i hope this kind of
helped you understand the japanese food
different aspects of japanese food and
historical background to that and also
help you to appreciate japanese food a
little bit more if you enjoyed this
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japan and food connecting to that so
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forward to you in the next video
bye