Translated from Japanese, this study exposes English-language scholars to the complexities of the relationship between food, culture, the environment, and literature in Japan. Yuki explores the systems of value surrounding food as expressed in four popular Japanese female writers: Ishimure Michiko, Taguchi Randy, Morisaki Kazue, and Nashiki Kaho.

Autorentext
Author Yuki Masami: Yuki Masami is a Professor in the Foreign Language Institute at Kanazawa University, Japan. Translated by Michael Berman: Michael Berman is a graduate student in the Department of Sociocultural Anthropology at the University of California, San Diego, USA.

Inhalt
Translator's Introduction Preface to the English edition Introduction PART I: A DISCUSSION WITH ISHIMURE MICHIKO 1. Interview with Ishimure Michiko: What have people eaten? 2. Analysis: Literary resistance to toxic discourse: Paradise in the Sea of Sorrow and post-Minamata literature PART II: A DISCUSSION WITH TAGUCHI RANDY 3. Interview with Taguchi Randy: Approaching the relational world of eating 4. Adoration and resistance: A literary practice revolving around food and contamination PART III: A DISCUSSION WITH MORISAKI KAZUE 5. Interview with Morisaki Kazue: The logic of eating together 6. Analysis: A diasporic intervention into modernity: A world of eating together PART IV: A DISCUSSION WITH NASHIKI KAHO 7. Interview with Nashiki Kaho: Foodscape on the boundaries 8. Analysis: A world of food and working with one's hands: Hybridity of a magic table