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Milk, Yogurt and Butter in Medieval East Asia: Dairy Products from China to Japan in Medicine and Buddhism Kotyk, Jeffrey

Abstract

Dairy products have existed in China from at least the Han Dynasty onward. Later, under the influence of Buddhism, dairy items such as yogurt, butter and ghee were required for ritual purposes. The domestic dairy industry in medieval China is an understudied topic, but even more so is the use of dairy in contemporary Japan, where Chinese traditions of Buddhism were transplanted in full. The kanji describing various dairy products were also known in Japan, but we must ask whether these substances were available in Japan, and to what extent. Unlike luxury consumables such as aromatics and medicines, perishable foodstuffs were unlikely to have been transported from the mainland. This study will document and discuss the transmission of a dairy industry from China to Japan, with a focus on the role of these products in religious and medical contexts.

Item Metadata

Title
Milk, Yogurt and Butter in Medieval East Asia: Dairy Products from China to Japan in Medicine and Buddhism
Creator
Kotyk, Jeffrey
Publisher
Multidisciplinary Digital Publishing Institute
Date Issued
2021-04-25
Description
Dairy products have existed in China from at least the Han Dynasty onward. Later, under the influence of Buddhism, dairy items such as yogurt, butter and ghee were required for ritual purposes. The domestic dairy industry in medieval China is an understudied topic, but even more so is the use of dairy in contemporary Japan, where Chinese traditions of Buddhism were transplanted in full. The kanji describing various dairy products were also known in Japan, but we must ask whether these substances were available in Japan, and to what extent. Unlike luxury consumables such as aromatics and medicines, perishable foodstuffs were unlikely to have been transported from the mainland. This study will document and discuss the transmission of a dairy industry from China to Japan, with a focus on the role of these products in religious and medical contexts.
Subject
Buddhism; dairy; yogurt; materia medica; China; Japan; Daoism
Genre
Article
Type
Text
Language
eng
Date Available
2021-05-26
Provider
Vancouver : University of British Columbia Library
Rights
CC BY 4.0
DOI
10.14288/1.0398172
URI
http://hdl.handle.net/2429/78461
Affiliation
Arts, Faculty of; Asian Studies, Department of
Citation
Religions 12 (5): 302 (2021)
Publisher DOI
10.3390/rel12050302
Peer Review Status
Reviewed
Scholarly Level
Faculty
Rights URI
https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/
Aggregated Source Repository
DSpace

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CC BY 4.0