Eating Wild Japan: Tracking the Culture of Foraged Foods, with a Guide to Plants and Recipes

(Paperback)

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Description

• A diverse market with four categories of possible readers:

1. foraging enthusiastsliving outside of Japan (and maybe a few inside Japan) who want to know how other cultures use and relate to wild edible plants
2. people who love Japanese foodand want to discover something new about an otherwise well-known cuisine
3. people traveling to Japan (especially rural Japan) who want a more in-depth understanding of what they are eating
4. general Japanophiles hungry for any new angle on Japan

• Packed with practical information, with 30 recipes and 25 botanical-glossary entries
• It has 40beautiful hand-drawn illustrations
• A unique approach: No other English-language books (no cookbooks, field guides, or non-fiction books) that we are aware of cover Japans edible wild plants with the depth and breadth of this book (or actually, at all). Journalistically researched yet written in a more personal voice, which sets it apart from a number of Japan-foodie-travel books on the market written from a less personal perspective.
• Rooted in a deep personal interest of the author: "I have an unusual background combining extensive knowledge of Japans natural environment, rural culture, and cuisine gained through years spent living in the Japanese countryside and working as an environmental journalist. For me this was a very personal projects bringing together four of my passions in life: plants, food, rural culture, and Japan."
• It draws on three years of research in many remote corners of Japan.
• Plants reveal aspects of Japans culture and history that will be of interest to readers who are not especially interested in botany or foraging. This is a book about how people live and have historically lived outside Japans urban centers.
• In the author's words: "The idea for this book hit me as I was lying in bed in the middle of the night. I got up and essentially wrote down the outline for it right then and there. The inspiration came from an 85-year old neighbor I had when I lived in Nagano Prefecture who was also a writer and plant lover. She collected sansai every spring and introduced me to some of my favorite wild plants..

Statistics

• In 2018 Japan saw 31 million visitors from abroad, a 3 million increase from the previous year. This trend is not only expected to continue, but to surge to 40 million in light of the 2020 Tokyo Olympics.
• Interest in wild food has steady increased over the past decade2017 saw a sizeable increase in the Google search popularity of wild food with a peak in June of 2019.
• According to Food and Wine, people are becoming concerned about sustainability and food waste. Foraging and wild edibles present an alternative. Local and regional cuisines are still in vogue. These trends go hand-in-hand with the emergence of foraging food tours, such as ForageSF.
• The popularity of wild foods and foraging is further reflected in successful YouTube food and lifestyle channels around foraging even in niche subcategories: Coastal Foraging with Craigs Evans, 68k subscribers; Outdoor Chef Life, 218k subscribers. https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCpBQMibpipuqHsI_mJMVveAhttps://www.youtube.com/channel/UCNqpN335uVY9Sx_ZK_WuOAA
• You can find similar success in print media such as the blogger and writer Hank Shaw who has won multiple awards for his writing on hunting and foraging. He also sports some 17,000 followers on Twitter and 54,000 on Instagram. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hank_Shaw_(author)https://honest-food.net/about/

Reviews

"Winifred Bird's insightful essays and illustrated guide to Japans wild edible plants the first of its kind in English is next-level reading for Japanese food lovers. "

Travel and Leisure

"Eating Wild Japan satiates the mind, providing a detailed exploration of Japans intricate, ever important food culture."

The Japan Times

"Beautifully written, light, intimate and at times funny."

The Society of Environmental Journalists

"An in-depth, humanistic, and fascinating journey across the wilds of the country in search of foraging."Nyri Bakkalian, Unseen Japan

"Bird is outstanding in illuminating the way food and subjugation have historically been tied together, causing the disappearance of foraging practices.

The Asian Review of Books

"Not only a superbly-written and engaging read but plays an important role in spreading and preserving the knowledge of the Japanese wilderness."

Metropolis Magazine

"This investigative and engaging book educates, enthralls and entices the reader to explore what Japans rich woodlands have to offer."

Tokyo Weekender

Winifred Bird has done all the hard work of researching, translating and learning from Japanese experts to compile the first English language book on this topic Bird writes with clear passion for plants and people and so these important environmental and social issues are lightened with optimism There is inspiration to be found here, whether you travel to Japan or not, to reconnect with the plants and food of your local area.

Japan Society UK Review

"Eating Wild Japan isnt just a book dedicated to lesser-known produce hidden in Japans countryside; its an exhibit on sustainable living, remembering the food of our past, and eating what is in abundance."

AJET Connect Magazine

"A charming escape, as well as a practical guide for those who choose to explore on their own."

Story Circle Network

"Winifred Bird has penned a delightful homage to those who practice the art of bringing wild foods deliciously to table. Eating Wild Japan triggered fond memories of outings with my mother-in-law in Shikoku unearthing edible shoots and roots that her kitchen wisdom later turned into a feast."

Elizabeth Andoh, author of Washoku and Kansha

"Inspired by an engaging countrywoman neighbor and nearly a decade living in rural Japan, Winifred Bird sought out experts throughout the country to write this book on wild plants and seaweeds. The characters are just as fascinating as the plants and the recipes for how to prepare them found throughout the book. And although not intended as an official field guide, the descriptions and background included for the entries in the Guide to Plants are extremely thorough and informative. Eating Wild Japan fills a hole that much needed filling in the landscape of writing on Japanese food."

Nancy Singleton Hachisu, author of Japan: The Cookbook

"A beautiful and thoughtful exploration of the deep relationship--past and present--between people and wild plants in one of the world's richest foraging regions. And filled with recipes that I am eager to try, for many of these plants, or their close relatives, are found in North America. Winifred Bird has captured the deeper meaning of wild edibles, both to the people who eat them, and to the wild landscapes these people cherish."

Samuel Thayer, author of Incredible Wild Edibles and The Forager's Harvest

"Winifred Bird has created a fascinating,thought-provoking,and delightful book. A must read for anyone interested in the role of wild edibles in Japanese culture and cuisine. A scrumptious story that made me want to eat and travel with Bird as my companion."

GinaRaeLaCerva, author ofFeasting Wild: In Search of the Last Untamed Food

Finally, someone has written a book on Sansai that can begin to answer some of my questions about different plants, how theyre consumed, and most delicious of all: a glimpse into the role they play in Japanese culture.Eating Wild Japanis asavorycollection of essays into the world of Sansai, a sort of catch-all term for many traditional wild plants eaten in Japan. Lovers of foraging will find new things in its pages absent from North American and Euro-centric wild food literature.

Chef Alan Bergo, author offoragerchef.comandThe Forager Chef's Book of Flora

For actual and armchair travelers and for everyone who loves Japanits people, culture, and authentic foodwaysWinifred Bird's Eating Wild Japan is a charming and indispensable companion. There are many tasty recipes (most easily reproducible at home) and a fantastic guide to plants. But this is far more than a manual for cooking with gathered greens or seaweed. Bird's essays introduce us to the folks who protect and cultivate forests, fields, and shores as she walks us along the back roads and byways of quiet villages and outlying islands, gathering ancient, edible knowledge. Soon we're drinking green tea and snacking on dried persimmons, fiddlehead ferns, and local sansai tempura, made from weeds and wild mountain vegetables. Illustrated with simple line drawings by Paul Poynter, Eating Wild Japan will make you reconsider the essential connections between wildlands, conservation, and food.

Caroline Fraser, author of the Pulitzer Prize-winning biography, Prairie Fires: The American Dreams of Laura Ingalls Wilder

At once fascinating and practical, Winifred Bird's roving inquiry offers more than a curated guide to Japan's wild edible plants and their preparation. It's a blueprint for making our own journeys into distant foodways. The result is a deeper understanding of people and place--and a basket full of extraordinary ingredients to brighten the table."

Langdon Cook, author of Upstream: Searching for Wild Salmon, from River to Table

"Eating Wild Japan is a thoughtful English-language introduction to the foraged flavors of Japan. Thisbook transports youto a world guided by the nuances of the season, and after reading it you will never look at the landscape in Japan quite thesame way again."

Alexis Agliano Sanborn, Director,Nourishing Japan & Co-Host,Seasons by Seasons Podcast

This is a terrific book, and the only one of its kind. A fascinating and knowledgeable history, many insightful stories about the roles these plants play in peoples lives, a useful wild plant guide, and delicious recipes. Youll want to try them all!

Azby Brown, author of Just Enough: Lessons in living green from traditional Japan

I long to encounter every enchanting forest, passionate preservationist, and bracingly bitter taste Winifred Bird vividly describes. Im grateful to learn along with her about Japans traditional and contemporary wild food cultures that nourish connection to the nonhuman worldto incremental changes in season and climateand to history. Her simple recipes offer insight into a delightful way of eating that you need not travel to Japan to try.

Hannah Kirshner, author of Water, Wood, and Wild Things

"This is a marvelous book, a book to savor while dreaming about wild plants and tempting dishes. Winifred Birds gentle walks through Japanese foraging landscapes are infused with tantalizing stories and flavors. Instructive and wise, Eating Wild tells of foraging to inspire closer attention to the weedy, wild world around us."

Anna Tsing, co-editor of Feral Atlas: The More-than-Human Anthropocene (feralatlas.org)

Author Bio

Winifred Bird is a writer, translator, lifelong cook, and lover of plants both wild and domesticated. For almost a decade she lived in rural Japan, where she worked as an environmental journalist, grew organic rice and vegetables, and ate as many foraged foods as possible. She lives with her family on an island in Lake Michigan, where she is a contributor to the local newspaper.

Paul Poynter (illustrations) is an artist, tree climber, and woodsman living in Matsumoto, Japan.