CULTURE, AGRICULTURAL BASIC COMPLEX AND FOOD(1) : A Case Study of Brassica in Japan

This paper describes and discusses the relationship between the "agricultural basic complex" and food culture at the local level. Sasuke NAKAO outlined the four types of Agriculture Basic Complexes in The Origin of Agriculture and Cultivated Plants (NAKAO, 1966) and The Origin of Agriculture in Nature: Ecological Studies (Masa'aki MORISHITA and Tatsuo KIRA eds., 1967). Brassica spp. are the minor crops which accompany plants with Triticum spp., Avena spp. and Hordeum spp. In Japan, they are estimated to have been introduced twice before the eighth century. In the first ever book published in Japan, Kojiki(712 A.D.) and Nihonshoki (720 A.D.) mentioned "Aona"(Turnip or Brassica spp.) as one of the crops which supplement the five main crops (Rice, Fox tail, Millet, Wheat and Bean). Brassica campestris var. glabra Kitam., known as "Shogoin Kabu" were introduced in Kyoto City, the old capital of Japan, in the middle of the Edo period. They were used for pickles from the end of the Edo period until the present. These days, however, "Shogoin Kabu" are not grown in the area which gave the crop its name, Shogoin, an area close to the campus of Kyoto University. They are, however, grown in other parts of Kyoto, namely the areas of Mibu (south-west), Shugakuin (north-east) and Kanshuji (south-cast). No "Shogoin Kabu" are now grown in the western area, but there are many large fields of the plant in the city of Kameoka, to the west of the city. However, while "Shogoin Kabu" have been grown inside Kyoto City for several hundred years, the central area of plantation has shifted from the central area to the peripheral or suburban areas of the city. The author suggests that this is an example of a typical pattern of urban agriculture in a historical Japanese city.