“AISUKURIN”, The Remains　of The Past (Japanese Cultural and Historical Anecdote)

Oita Godo Newspaper (Evening Publication on November 12, 2007. Page 4)

Column: Articles for Kids

Theme: “AISUKURIN”, The Remains　of The Past

       The first Japanese people who got a chance to taste AISUKURIN were a group of people dispatched to the United States by Japanese Government for a certain mission in 1860, Edo period.

       According to a member’s diary, “First, make ice soft by boiling in hot water. After the shape becomes satisfactory, use some ice to cool it down. At that time, should not put a raw egg in, so that it will not become frozen during cooling.(Put a raw egg later)…” was mentioned as a strange recipe of making ice cream. Hypothesizing that it was merely American people‘s ridicule which those Japanese took too seriously.

       However, this frozen sweet was sold first time in Japan by MACHIDA FUSASOU who lived in Yokohama. Even though he opened a shop at Yokohama Carriage Street in 1869, but sometimes foreign guests found the product lacked of standard, and then triggered his heavy loss.

       Instead of giving up, he learned from his experiences. In the following year, he reopened the shop successfully among a crowd at the major festival of KOTAI Shinto Shrine on ISE Mountain. A quantity for one person was sold as expensive as 2BU (Japanese ancient currency. 4BU were equal to 1RYO). Nevertheless, his ice cream became a very big hit surprisingly.

       Further, currently Japan's decree determines that “ICE CREAM (AISUKURIIMU in Japanese)” must contain 8% of milk fat. That makes another kind of traditional frozen sweet similar to sherbet with lower percent of milk fat be called only “AISUKURIN” as a trade name, but still being sold up until nowadays.

Article by: NOBUMICHI UEDA, Associate professor of Okazaki women's college

Illustration by: INOUE CHIHIRO

Translation by: MOD Siripun ^^(Thai), 2nd Year, Asia Pacific Studies College, Ritsumeikan Asia Pacific University à

This story tells us a very interesting origin of the word “AISUKURIN” which sounds like a grammatical mistake for me (should be “AISUKURIIMU” which came from the word “Ice Cream” in English language). However, after reading the story I have become to realize that actually this word is a certain kind of cultural heritage which we ought to preserve. There is a precious long historical story inside!! “AISUKURIN” conceals an interesting sense of Japanese history which has been past on time after time. And I am very happy to know that Japanese people sill use that word in modern life, although I have never experienced directly.

Bye bye, thank you for reading.

Hope to see you next time!

Mod