The Illustrated Dictionary of Japanese Food: Ingredients, Preparations, and Culture
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Originally published in 1996 without the 320 photographs that now make it an illustrated dictionary, this is a handy, comprehensive guide to Japanese ingredients, dishes, drinks, and culinary tools.
Its compact 8” x 5” format disguises its scope. Entries range from abekawamochi (grilled cut mochi topped with sugar or syrup and a parched soybean flour known as kinako) to zuwaigani (Pacific snow crab, harvested in winter). Hosking includes Japanese characters along with romanized names, including the kanji characters adopted from China, which he says are often more definitive and some of which are extremely rare and unusual, “and therefore in my view all the more worth presenting.”
Appendices delve more deeply into the making and use of signal elements of Japanese food culture, such as chopsticks, miso, tea and tea ceremony, soy sauce, and the rare wasanabon sugar.
Born in Australia and educated at Cambridge, Hosking (1933-2019) was Professor of Sociology and English at Hiroshima Shudo University.
Paperback. Color photographs throughout.
Published on May 12, 2026
