RYŌRI MONOGATARI 料理物語 [Tales of Cookery]

One full-page woodcut. 30 folding leaves. 8vo (192 x 138 mm.), orig. wrappers, manuscript title-slip on upper cover, new stitching. [Edo]: on final leaf [Matsue Ichirōbei 松会市郎兵衛], “on a good day in July 1664.”


First illustrated edition of “the first culinary book [in Japan] written for an audience other than hōchōnin [professional chefs who created meals for the ruling elite].”–Rath, p. 57. The first edition, which was unillustrated, appeared in 1643 and is a well-known rarity; our edition is equally rare. The anonymous author, who in the Postscript is described as having written this book in Sayama in Musashi province (today’s Saitama Prefecture), wrote this work for a wide readership, with a table of contents. It marked the beginning of a boom in culinary books written for a popular audience.


In the table of contents, foods are divided into 20 categories: 1-7 are names of dishes sorted by their general ingredients (many kinds ocean fish, freshwater fish, 18 varieties of birds, vegetables, etc.), and 8-20 are detailed recipes organized by preparation method (braising, raw, broiling, soups, cooking with sake, noodles, confectionaries, tea, etc.). For a detailed discussion of the text and this edition, see Laura Moretti, Pleasure in Profit (New York: 2020), pp. 158-64.


The fine woodcut, very much in the style of Hishikawa Moronobu 菱川師宣, depicts a kitchen scene with one man cutting up a fish, another grilling a whole fish, and two women busy preparing drinks and food to be carried into the dining area. The publisher, Matsue, was one of the two most active publishers in Edo in the 1660s.


Nice copy, with minor worming.


❧ Eric C. Rath, Food and Fantasy in Early Modern Japan (Berkeley: 2010), pp. 57-59, 85, 93, 94, 102-03, 105, 108-09, 116, 123, 167-68, 170, & 220 note 6.