The Dietary Environment of Ordinary People
The Dietary Environment of Poverty:
Okinawa has a subtropical climate with a year-round average temperature of a warm 22 degrees. It is an easy place to live. Yet, arable land is scarce and the soil is often thin, so its productivity is low. Moreover, the islands are buffeted by typhoons each year or visited by drought. Accordingly, the population was historically small - Ryukyu had a population of barely 70,000 to 80,000 as of 1406.
However, in 1605 Noguni Soukan brought the sweet potato to Okinawa, and it is thought that this greatly augmented Okinawa's food supply. The sweet potato would grow in thin soil and the plants were tough enough to withstand typhoon-strength winds. All in all, it was perfect for Okinawan crop conditions. The sweet potato was subsequently introduced to the Satsuma fief in southern Kyushu where it became known as the "Satsuma potato," and from where it spread throughout Japan.
More than 100 years after the introduction of the sweet potato to Okinawa, in the latter half of the 18th century, the royal government began to promote hog-raising and hog husbandry quickly spread among ordinary farmers.
It is said that hogs were actually brought to Okinawa around the end of the 14th century by persons returning from China. However, farmers at the time were short of feed, so hog-raising did not catch on. What ultimately spurred the spread of hog-raising was the availability of sweet potatoes. The sweet potato became the Okinawan dietary mainstay. Not just the tuber itself was eaten; people used the leaves as well. And in addition to sustaining people, the potato was fed to hogs and cattle as well. Potato cultivation greatly increased the food supply and thus helped stabilize living conditions. In addition it fattened livestock and raised their reproductive capacity, and the livestock in turn provided fertilizer to enrich the soil. The relationship that thus developed in Okinawa between the potato, people, and animals created an agricultural synergy, improved the food situation, and sustained population growth. Farmers also grew grains, but these mainly went to pay land taxes, leaving very little for personal consumption.
The upper classes regularly ate rice. The middle classes consumed a mixed diet of rice and potatoes. However, the potato supplied more than ninety percent of common peoples' diet.
This percentage probably changed somewhat over time, but the potato still remained the mainstay of ordinary people's diet until midway through the 20th century, up to the time of World War II.
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