【Reading】かいせきりょうり

【English Name】Kaiseki Cuisine

Kaiseki-ryori is a form of Japanese cuisine served at tea ceremony gatherings. It is something the host prepares as a meal that gives form to the spirit of hospitality, and its name is said to derive from an old custom at Zen temples.

There are several theories about the formation of the word "kaiseki." The widely known theory holds that it derives from the practice of training monks placing a stone heated by fire, wrapped in cloth, inside their robes (futokoro) to ward off cold and hunger. There is also a view that it is a transformation of "hikatsu kaigyoku" ("wearing coarse clothes while embracing jade within") from the Laozi.

In Rikyu's time it was called "kaiseki" (会席) or "furumai," but in the process of the systematization of the tea ceremony during the Edo period, the characters "kaiseki" (懐石) are said to have been applied. During the Tensho era, as the townspeople of Sakai cultivated wabi-cha, the ichiju-sansai (one soup, three dishes) composition became the basic form, and the three dishes came to be arranged as mukozuke (sashimi), a simmered-dish bowl (nimonowan), and a grilled dish.

Caution is needed regarding confusion with kaiseki-ryori (会席), which shares the same reading "kaiseki." Whereas kaiseki (懐石) is a light meal meant for savoring tea, kaiseki-ryori (会席) is focused on enlivening a drinking occasion. In particular, the order in which rice is served differs: in kaiseki (懐石) it comes at the beginning, while in kaiseki (会席) it comes at the close. To distinguish them, the kaiseki accompanying a tea gathering is sometimes called "cha-kaiseki."

There is also a simplified format in which a complete set of dishes is arranged in a tiered box (jubako), of which the shokado bento is a representative example.