Scanned from a period stereoptical view card, c. 1900
No listing of publisher, date, nor assertion of any copyright.
Text on reverse:
YOKOHAMA, JAPAN. SHELL FISH DEALER'S STAND
The Japanese take three meals a day. Much the same food is partaken of at all these meals, but breakfast is lighter thant he other two. The staple is rice, with fish and eggs which are plentiful, and minute portions of vegetables, either fresh or pickled, especially beans.
Buddhism left its imprint here, as on everything in Japan. To Buddhism was due the abaondonment of a meat diet, now over a thousand years ago. The permission to eat fish, though that too entailed taking of life, which is contrary to strict Buddhist tenents, seems to have been a concession to human frailty. Pious frauds, moreover, came to the rescue. One may even now see the term "mountain whale" (yama-kujira) written up over certain eating-houses, which means venison. The logis is this: A whale is a fish; fish may be eaten; therefore if you call venison "mountain whale," you can eat it. No actual prohibion against eating flesh, such as existed under the old regime, obtains now, but the custom of abstaining from it remains pretty general. The coasts of Japan abound in fish and shellfish of all descriptions and of excellent quality.