메이지 시기 陸軍糧秣厰의 설치와 일본 육군 兵食의 ‘근대화’

Abstract

This paper examines how the food for the Japanese Army was “modernized” by analyzing Rikugun Ryoumatsushou, a military institution that promoted the supply of canned beef and standardized the army food system. Japanese government galvanized the ingestion of beef that had been regarded as taboo before the Meiji Restoration. This led beef to become an emblem of Japanese modernity. As a part of training strong soldiers, beef was consumed in a can. The significance of canned beef in the Japanese Army increased as Japan went through the Sino-Japanese War and the Russo-Japanese War. Meanwhile, the necessity of standardized control of military food arose in the process of fixing the problems that emerged after the Sino-Japanese War. This led to the creation of the Rikugun Ryoumatsushou which was directly controlled by the Army Minister. Ryoumatsushou was in charge of procurement, production, and study of army food, with governmental factories to produce canned beef in it. This system emulated the West, particularly Germany. Fukuoka Sajirō, a military doctor and a technocrat of Ryoumatsushou, played a key role in establishing the brand-new system. Japanese Army sent him to the West, and he examined canneries and military food in the West. His one-year inspection laid the foundation for developing new policies for operating Ryoumatsushou and governmental canneries, climaxing in the transformation of Japanese Army food into a modern system.