Author: Barbara Inui

Guarding The Rice Crops

With the ripening of rice plants in autumn, a striking flower appears across Japan at the exact same time: the red spider lily.

In Japanese it’s called Higanbana, the flower of higan, the shore on the other side of the river that separates the world of the living and the dead.

The autumnal equinox day is when the sun sets exactly in the west, the direction where the Japanese believe the Pure Land, or paradise, to be. So this is when families traditionally visit ancestral graves.

Blooming around this time, the flower got its name. Even in English it is sometimes translated as Equinox Flower.

You can often see these flowers blooming around the perimeters of rice paddies or on narrow footpaths between them.

In the old days people planted them there on purpose. Because the plant is poisonous, it keeps mice, moles, and insects away from the precious rice crops.

To my astonishment, I heard my mother-in-law mention that she ate the bulb during wartime, when other food was scarce.

The main toxin, licorine, is water soluble, so the bulb was crushed and rinsed repeatedly in water, until the poison was washed out.

Afterwards, the mixture was left to settle so the starch would sink to the bottom and could finally be collected.

It was then formed into dumplings or mixed with other grains and cooked. This would provide food in times of famine or war.

Shiny And Beautiful, Yet Poisonous: The Horse Chestnut

Japan has other toxic or bitter plants that are not commonly eaten in Europe; yet here they are transformed into food through lengthy and labor-intensive methods.

Take the horse chestnut (tochi), for example.

As its bitter and toxic saponins are not water soluble, it takes a complex process to remove them which lasts about a month.

First the seeds are soaked in water to kill insects, then peeled with a special tool.

After immersing the shelled seeds in running water (e.g. a river) for 7 to 10 days to wash out acids and toxins, workers boil them in water mixed with tree ash for up to a week.

Only after this lengthy process can they be steamed and pounded together with glutinous rice to make chestnut mochi cakes or chestnut rice crackers.

Japanese mochi

The term mochi is usually used for rice cakes made of glutinous rice. After steaming the rice it is pounded into paste and formed into the desired shape, usually round or rectangular.

A Hard-Earned Root

Even non-poisonous roots require great skill, time and labor to extract and process. The kudzu root is one example.

Its starch has been used in Japan since ancient times. It works well in cooking, just like potato or corn starch, but as it warms the body and regulates digestion, it has been used as a traditional remedy against colds. Dissolved in hot water with ground ginger and a touch of honey, people drink it to ward off colds. It is also crafted into sweets.

Finding the right kudzu plant takes an expert eye. It has to be a plant with a thick, woody trunk – not exactly what we associate with a climbing vine. People look for it in winter when more starch is stored in the root.

Even when finding a promising plant, there’s no guarantee the root will be thick or starch-rich enough to justify the digging.

If you’re lucky enough to get a nice, fat root, the work to extract the starch must start immediately, otherwise the starch will degrade.

First it is scrubbed clean with a brush, then pounded with a wooden mallet to break up the fibers.

Then the pieces are broken down further by hand.

The pieces are immersed in a bucket of water and kneaded to release the starch.

The liquid is strained through a cloth bag and the cloth wrung to squeeze out the last drop of liquid.

The liquid is left to sit so that the heavy starch settles at the bottom and the dirty water on top is poured off and replaced repeatedly until it stays clear.

Finally the starch is collected and left to dry for long-term storage.

Of course this process is done mechanically for commercial purposes today.

There are many more examples of such work-intensive foods in Japan. The hardship and physical labor the Japanese were and are willing to invest remain astonishing – and offer a window into how hard it must have been to get by in earlier eras.

This figure with his long spear is part of a feudal lord’s procession. He is travelling back to his home province after completing a year of service to the Shogun in Edo (modern-day Tokyo).

Under the “alternate attendance” system (sankin-kotai) lasting through the Edo period (1602-1868), all lords (approximately 300 of them!) were required to spend every other year in the de-facto capital.

The lords returned home afterwards, but their wives and heirs were forced to stay behind in Edo. They served as hostages to ensure that no lord got any funny ideas about uprising and overthrowing the shogunate while away in his home province.

Setting Out

Here we can see a procession just setting out, crossing the Nihonbashi Bridge in Edo which was the starting point of the five great routes in old Japan (incidentally, at this point there is still the kilometer zero marker for all road distances across the nation).

Japan’s five great highways (the Gokaido)

• Tokaido: 500 to 514 km (311 to 319 mi) The most famous coastal route connecting Edo to Kyoto. Even now, the Bullet Train connecting Tokyo and Osaka is called the Todaido Shinkansen.
• Nakasendo: 534 km (332mi) Although longer than the Tokaido and running through the mountains, it was popular because there were no major rivers to cross.
• Koshu Kaido: 210 km (130 mi) Running west from Edo to Suwa in Nagano Prefecture
• Nikko Kaido: 140 to 150 km (87 to 93 mi) Leading to Nikko where the first shogun of the Tokugawa family was enshrined. Especially the early shoguns of the dynasty made grand processions. Later shoguns skipped the journey because of the prohibiting costs.
• Oshu Kaido: 80 to 90 km (50 to 56 mi) From Utsunomiya to Shirakawa

The lord of our procession is master of a middle-sized province, so his entourage consists of 250 to 300 attendants. Big domains, however, might have groups of 1500 to 4000 people, an incredible number to move along a great distance.

These processions consisted of samurai warriors (the lord’s faithful retainers), armed guards, palanquin carriers, foot servants and baggage handlers. But there were also cooks, medical staff, horse grooms, personal staff, accountants and our spear bearer.

Essentially, they were mobile extensions of the lord’s castle.

Showing Off

To impress the watching crowds, all lords temporarily hired part-timers to artificially increase the size of their procession while passing through Edo or other major post towns (shuku).

Our spear bearer played an important part in this display of power. Walking in the front of the procession, he and his colleagues cleared the way and put on a bit of a show. They moved in a stylized, exaggerated way while swinging their arms and legs high and tossing their long spears to one another to entertain bystanders and display the prestige of their lord.

Commoners had to bow and stay put until the entire procession passed, the only exceptions allowed to break this rule were couriers and midwives on their way to a birth.

Simple Clothes

Like everyone else in the entourage, the spear bearer was wearing waraji rice-straw sandals.

These sandals typically wore out after 3 or 4 days of walking. Because of this, everyone had a bundle of spares with them for the trip. They could also be bought at shops along the route.

The very flat hat is another interesting item that can still be seen during festivals nowadays.

The hat was bound with a ribbon passing under the chin, secured at the sides and then tied between the lower lip and the chin.

Servants were wearing a very simple kimono with the back hem lifted and tucked into their belts for easier walking.

Higher-ranking samurai wore impressive clothes while passing through Edo, but would later change into more simple attires for easier walking.

On The Road

After leaving Edo behind, the hired laborers were paid off and returned home to Edo. The core group continued onward, walking 30 to 40 kilometers a day until reaching the post town where they had made reservations to spend the night.

The lord and his more important retainers stayed in the best inn available, while the accommodations got more and more simple and cramped for the lower-ranked samurai and servants. 

The higher-ranked people might have gotten the better rooms, but they were hardly able to sleep, as the lord had to be guarded at night.

Accommodating and feeding so many people was a huge logistical problem for the post stations. 

But as every lord moved on a fixed, pre-approved schedule, the towns knew when to expect them approximately.

The next day the grueling march continued, with stops for tea and lunch before reaching the next lodging destination.

While journeys for domains close to Edo only took a few days, traveling to Osaka took around two weeks.

For lords in the south of Kyushu, however, the 1500 km trek could take from 40 to 60 days.

The constant movement of thousands of people across Japan greatly promoted cultural exchange and ensured that the nation’ s highway system remained well maintained.

Dangerous Barriers

After two or three days on the Tokaido route, our group would have to ascend the steep Hakone Pass and undergo strict inspection at the Hakone Checkpoint. 

Every traveler had to present travel permits. 

Women leaving Edo were checked especially carefully to ensure no lord’s wife was trying to sneak out of the capital. 

Inspectors cross-checked documents describing characteristic features, and if any suspicion arose, female staff did a more thorough examination inside, sometimes even stripping the lady and undoing her elaborate hair. These checks were very much dreaded by female travelers.

Further down the road, the travelers reached another barrier, this time a natural one: the River Oi. While there were several rivers to be crossed on the Tokaido, the Oi was the most notorious.

No bridge or ferry boat was available. As the river often flooded, bridges would have been washed away anyway. But it also served the Shogun to have the river act as a natural obstruction to delay any invading forces. 

So how did travellers cross the river?

They hired specialized porters to carry them across the river. The cheapest way was to ride on the porter’s shoulders, while wealthier people were transported on wooden platforms carried by four or more porters. The lord was loaded on a platform inside his palanquin and escorted across the river by about 20 porters. 

Prices also varied depending on the depth of the water, and during floods it was impossible to cross the river at all.

A procession could be stranded for days waiting for the waters to recede. This would cause travel costs to explode, as everybody still had to be fed and lodged while waiting.

The Cost of Peace

Having to undertake these trips every other year was a huge financial burden for the lords.

Furthermore they had to maintain at least one residence in Edo in addition to the castle in their home province as well as the staff to run these multiple households.

This might just have been another measure of the shogunate to make sure no lord amassed enough wealth and power to pose a military threat.

The scheme worked, as peaceful times continued in Japan for about 260 years, and commerce and culture flourished across Japan.