1.

Record Nr.

UNINA9910450088603321

Autore

Bestor Theodore C.

Titolo

Tsukiji : The Fish Market at the Center of the World / / Theodore C. Bestor

Pubbl/distr/stampa

Berkeley, CA : , : University of California Press, , [2004]

©2004

ISBN

0-520-92358-8

1-59734-967-4

Descrizione fisica

1 online resource (441 p.)

Collana

California Studies in Food and Culture ; ; 11

Disciplina

381.4370952135

Soggetti

Markets - Japan - Tokyo - History

Seafood industry - Japan - Tokyo - History

Electronic books.

Tokyo (Japan) Social life and customs

Lingua di pubblicazione

Inglese

Formato

Materiale a stampa

Livello bibliografico

Monografia

Note generali

Description based upon print version of record.

Nota di contenuto

Front matter -- Contents -- List of Illustrations -- List of Tables -- Preface -- Acknowledgments -- Words, Dates, Statistics, Money -- 1. Tokyo's Pantry -- 2. Grooved Channels -- 3. From Landfill to Marketplace -- 4. The Raw and the Cooked -- 5. Visible Hands -- 6. Family Firm -- 7. Trading Places -- 8. Full Circle -- Appendix One. Visiting Tsukiji -- Appendix Two. Video,Web, and Statistical Resources -- Glossary -- Notes -- Bibliography -- Index

Sommario/riassunto

Located only blocks from Tokyo's glittering Ginza, Tsukiji-the world's largest marketplace for seafood-is a prominent landmark, well known but little understood by most Tokyoites: a supplier for countless fishmongers and sushi chefs, and a popular and fascinating destination for foreign tourists. Early every morning, the worlds of hi-tech and pre-tech trade noisily converge as tens of thousands of tons of seafood from every ocean of the world quickly change hands in Tsukiji's auctions and in the marketplace's hundreds of tiny stalls. In this absorbing firsthand study, Theodore C. Bestor-who has spent a dozen years doing fieldwork at fish markets and fishing ports in Japan, North America, Korea, and Europe-explains the complex social institutions



that organize Tsukiji's auctions and the supply lines leading to and from them and illuminates trends of Japan's economic growth, changes in distribution and consumption, and the increasing globalization of the seafood trade. As he brings to life the sights and sounds of the marketplace, he reveals Tsukiji's rich internal culture, its place in Japanese cuisine, and the mercantile traditions that have shaped the marketplace since the early seventeenth century.