Buddhism and Meat Eating
In some countries around the world, eating meat is taboo. Other countries exhibit differences in their preferences for meat. The Japanese, for example, generally rank beef first, followed by pork, chicken, whale meat, lamb and mutton, goat and horsemeat. The Chinese, it seems, put pork first, then lamb and mutton, chicken and horse. As for Okinawa, "pork as number one" sums it up. Okinawa clearly favors the Chinese preference over the Japanese. However, in Okinawa's case what is available and familiar no doubt outweighs preference in determining the rank order.
In Okinawa, during the hunting and gathering era, wild boar and dugong were hunted for food. It is thought that beef and horsemeat have only been eaten since the 12th century, and pork since the 14th century when potato cultivation spread through Okinawa. Pork did not appear on the tables of ordinary folk until the latter half of the 18th century. Thus, consumption of these meats is not all that old. A major factor in the spread of pork was the need to entertain the Sappo envoys from China, the "pork as number one" country. The Buddhism that spread in Japan fostered the appearance at least of shunning meat. Shintoism originally held the idea that meat eating was defilement. In the fusion of Shintoism and Buddhism, it is thought that this idea became linked with the Buddhist proscription against killing living things. Further, when rulers in Okinawa instituted policies to turn people from hunting and fishing to agricultural pursuits, the use for food of domestic animals like oxen and horses that were needed to till rice paddies was strictly forbidden.
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