:Since ancient times the Chinese believe that among domestic animals pigs are the most suitable for food, because Chinese traditional cuisine uses every part of it from lard and meat to hooves to ears and blood. There is an old Chinese riddle that goes What is the only part of a pig that you cannot eat? The correct answer is Its voice. This riddle makes a good point.You should not think, however, that in Japan people never knew such food traditions. As they put it in an old song, while deer meat and liver was used as an ingredient for namasu (finely chopped raw fish and vegetables soaked in vinegar), deer stomach and giblets were turned into seasonings and sauces. Old Japanese Chronicles mention a special position for breeding boars for food at the Imperial Court, an important reference about non-vegetarian tradition in Japan.
?In the ancient collection of poems and songs Manyoshu (The Collection of Ten Thousand Leaves) many of them describe sexual intercourse in very bold, unrestrained expressions. I think it could be the result of their meat diet that made them hot-tempered and bloody. By saying bloody here I mean not anemic, having rich blood.
?Compared to the authors of Manyoshu, vegetarian ladies of the Heian period were weak, pale, fragile, poetic and anxious. Their chubby faces with small eyes are the evidence of beriberi symptoms. It is not surprising that weird and ominous wraiths and evil spirits from The Story of Prince Genji were created at that time.
?Women of the Heian period apparently lacked vitamin B as well as protein and nutrition in general. Besides, ladies of high society never left their houses, waiting for gentlemen to visit them. It is hard to blame them for being irritated.
??? Then, there is stress that drives vitamin B1 out of the body in the urine. The lack of it destabilizes nerves functions and interferes with the normal thinking process, judgment and decision making. That is why, probably, Heian ladies saw things there were simply not there.
