First published in 2001. The history of Japan is usually divided into ages and periods corresponding to changes in government. The ancient age, marked by the central authority of the imperial court and its bureaucracy, gave way in the twelfth century to the medieval age of warrior governments. The early modern age began in the sixteenth century with reunification and the emergence of the Tokugawa shogunate, and the modern age dates from the Meiji Restoration of 1868. Rather than the periodization used by historians, this book adopts an original system conceived by the author as a practical framework for investigating the dietary history of the Japanese.