Reading the Zōhyō Monogatari · 01
When Rope Became Soup: Campaign Food in the Zōhyō Monogatari
What did foot soldiers eat on campaign? Supplies could fall behind, and the men could carry only so much. The Zōhyō Monogatari describes one useful piece of baggage: a rope made from taro stalks that could also be eaten.
Translation
Do not throw away the load rope or the straw bale-lid; keep them in good condition.
The rope was made from taro stalks, boiled in miso, and used to bind the load.
Chop up that rope, put it in water, and work it apart: it can become the solid ingredients of a soup.
Original text
其荷縄やさん俵を捨てないで、能くして置け。
いものくきを荷縄になつて、味噌で煮て荷を引からげて来たほどに、
其縄を引きざんで水に入れ、こねまわせば汁の実にも成べい。
Rope for the load—and for the pot
Imogara-nawa is rope made from dried taro stalks. In the Zōhyō Monogatari, the stalk rope is boiled with miso and used to tie up baggage. Once the load has been unpacked, the rope can have another use: it can go into soup.
其荷縄やさん俵を捨てないで、能くして置け。いものくきを荷縄になつて、味噌で煮て荷を引からげて来たほどに、其縄を引きざんで水に入れ、こねまわせば汁の実にも成べい。
Keep the load rope and straw bale lids; do not throw them away. The rope was made from taro stalks, boiled in miso, and used to tie up the baggage. Chop it, put it in water, and work it apart: it can be used as an ingredient in soup.
Zōhyō MonogatariYagi Gozō tells his listeners to keep both the rope and the round straw ends of the rice bales. The rope has already done its job on the road, but there is still food in it. Chopped and worked apart in water, the taro stalks become something to put in the pot.
The miso is part of the preparation before the load is tied. The same length of rope can hold baggage together on the march and later provide an ingredient for a meal.
When the baggage falls behind
The advice comes from the lower volume of the Zōhyō Monogatari, in a section spoken by Yagi Gozō, a baggage supervisor. His work concerns the konida: the supplies and equipment carried with an army, and the people and animals that transport them.
Yagi begins with a large force on the move. The baggage train has fallen far behind and cannot catch up with the troops in front. The men carry several days’ provisions, but Yagi warns that, when food runs short, even allies may take it from one another.
That is when the rope is worth keeping. Yagi also has a use for the straw bale lids: they can be made into mash for the horses. The animals carrying the loads need feeding too.
Pine bark and horse dung
Yagi has more suggestions for finding food. He mentions gathering edible plants, cooking pine bark into porridge, and boiling grain that has sprouted after getting wet. A pot of food also needs a fire. What happens when there is no firewood?
薪は、一日に一人に付八十匁の木が有ぺいならば、惣人数が集まれば見事有もんだと云。もし薪のない所だんべいならは、馬糞の干たなりともつかんで、薪にしぺいぞ。
If each man has about eighty monme of wood for a day, the whole force will have a good amount when it is gathered together. If there is no firewood, pick up even dried horse dung and use it as fuel.
Zōhyō MonogatariEighty monme is roughly 300 grams. A small amount gathered by each man adds up across a force. And when wood is unavailable, the horses that carried the loads provide something else for the fire.
The Zōhyō Monogatari also gives advice about weapons, horses, and baggage. The rope and the cooking fire belong to that same world of work on campaign.
Source
Zōhyō Monogatari, lower volume, Kyushu University Library. The firewood passage follows the Japanese text in Shiki Tsushima’s complete translation of the Zōhyō Monogatari. Reference: Zōhyō Monogatari, Kyoto University Library.