Moritsuke: Japanese Food Aesthetics

It’s not only the taste – Japanese food looks fabulous.

Whether it’s a simple meal at home or an elaborate kaiseki dinner, it always has stunning presentation.

This is intentional, and integral to Japanese dining. Both pros and home-cooks will make it a point to arrange the food beautifully, paying attention to the principles of Japanese food aesthetics, moritsuke (盛り付け).

Eating wonderfully served lunches and dinners doesn’t have to be limited to restaurants. With moritsuke, you too can make every meal – a feast for the eyes.

Introduction to Moritsuke

The Japanese believe that a crucial step of any consumption should be appreciation for the many gifts of nature we put on the table.

Before eating, Japanese customarily say “itadakimasu” – I humbly receive this food – an expression of gratitude. Appreciating the tea cup, color, and smell always come before drinking in a tea ceremony.

In its simplest form, moritsuke is the way you arrange food on a plate (or, more commonly in Japan, in several bowls and plates). It’s both about the selection of foods and the selection of serving ware, and the ways the two interact.

In a more complex definition, moritsuke is a food art form, continuously perfected through history, especially during the time of the samurai (14th century). It’s a set of food arrangement principles that can make any dish a feast for the eyes.

The oldest roots of moritsuke stem from the 7th century BC Chinese cosmology, from which Japanese religions adopted the Yin-Yang (in-you) theory of five elements. The reverence for the number five is reflected in the choices of colors, flavors, cooking methods, arrangement patterns, and special attention is paid to the use of negative space (ma) in serving. The focus on the five senses is the reason there’s such importance put on the sense of sight in appetite, along with the more obvious – smell, taste, and texture (sound and touch).

The Basic Principles of Moritsuke, Japanese Food Art

Moritsuke is a combination of principles to follow and pre-set arrangement styles for different types of food. Let’s dig in.

Harmony and Balance

Harmony is a core concept in Japanese culture.

It also lies at the root of moritsuke. It’s all about finding the right balance of aromas and textures, harmony of colors and shapes, a symphony of bowls that only exists in that present moment.

Just think of sushi. A whole array of colors and textures in a single bite.

Seasonality and Symbolism

Moritsuke is a way to savor the moment.

One of the repeating themes in Japanese cuisine is representing the current season and weather.
Warm-weather food might be lighter, cooler, or more hydrating, and cold-weather cuisine hot, denser or fattier; but seasonality goes beyond this.

Symbols of the four seasons are sometimes obvious in shape and color variations.
Just look at traditional sweets, wagashi: from pale-colored sakura-shaped cakes in spring, lively primary colors in summer, red maple leaf designs in the fall, to white desserts of winter. In everyday meals, seasonality is reflected in shapes, colors, and the materials of both the foods and the dishes.

Space in Food Presentation

Creating the right balance in your dish is important. Good moritsuke needs empty space as much as it needs the food.

More space is left between the ingredients in warm weather, to allow the eyes some breathing room and create a sense of open space.
In winter it’s cold, so people crave a cozy, warm atmosphere: ingredients are often placed snugly together.

The Five Colors

You should eat a colorful plate – all cultures strive to consume a variety of nutrients for good health.

According to ancient Asian beliefs, a full meal should contain the 5 basic colors: white, black, red, yellow, and green. Here’s a fun fact: historically, green is called – blue. For example, unripe fruit and green apples are called blue, not green.

Here are some examples of ingredients a full meal should cover:

1.     Black are seaweeds like nori, wakame, kombu and hijiki, shiitake mushrooms, konnyaku goods, or black beans, olives, and sesame.

2.     White is easy to find – from rice, grain and noodles, the many white-meat fish, shellfish, and squid, veggies like daikon radishes, turnips, lotus roots, potatoes, onions, to dairy.

3.     Green (blue) foods include leafy greens, cucumbers, edamame, peas, chives, sprouts and shoots.

4.     Red foods are often fish or crustaceans, beef, azuki bean, and red veggies like carrots and tomatoes. The combination of red and white foods represents happiness and auspicious events.

5.     Yellow foods include the many soybean foods, corn, eggs, chestnuts, pumpkins, sweet potatoes, and many citrus fruits.

Of course, not all colors need to be on a single plate. Most Japanese meals are served in a variety of dishes and bowls.  That means you can complement the colors of food with colored dinnerware.

Bowls and Plates

Even for a light breakfast, each person gets two or more bowls and plates on a tray. There’s always room to play.

Bowls and plates should complement the colors of the food, and/or express seasonality.
This is a dual challenge for moritsuke practitioners – the design of each dish should be balanced with the food, and with all the other pieces on the dinner table.

Luckily, a variety of materials, colors, and shapes is encouraged.

For example, a long oval or rectangular plate is used for fish and meat or another main dish. Rice is usually served in a simple bowl.

Keep the season and ease of use in mind: lighter colors and materials in the summer (glass, porcelain, bamboo), and cozy, warmth-conserving ware in the winter (lacquerware, ceramics, wood).

Lacquerware food boxes are one of the symbols of the New Year in Japan. Packing bento – lunch boxes is a unique skill too, similar to moritsuke. A neat bento box is a nice way to show love. 🍱
Choosing for the season is also important in Japanese tea cups. Shallower porcelain cups let the tea cool quickly, and a deep stoneware chawan keeps you warm in winter afternoons.

The Five Cooking Techniques

Diversity is a virtue in Japanese cooking.

There are five types of preparing food that you can serve in a single meal: a raw salad, a pickled side, simmered soup, grilled fish or toasted seeds, and steamed rice.

Of course, not everybody has the skills or the time for all five types of cooking on a daily basis, but it’s something to strive for.

Sometimes, the concept goes hand-in-hand with the five states of food, in a gradient from cold to hot. It refers to how the body reacts to these foods – the hydrating and cooling effects of cucumber, the balanced neutrality of rice, or the ability of chili and curry to warm us up.

The Five Flavors

In a meal, you also need a good balance of flavors.
The big five are salty, sour, sweet, bitter, and spicy. Sometimes, umami replaces spicy.

1.     Salty food can be salted, fermented, or naturally flavorful like seaweed.

2.     Citruses, strawberries, and ume are naturally sour, or you can have tsukemono – something pickled.

3.     Naturally sweet foods include fruit and honey, but also tomatoes, broccoli, and shiitake.

4.     Bitter is important too – grilled fish, coffee, and green tea also bring pleasant amounts of bitterness.

5.     Spicy can come from ingredients like daikon, ginger, garlic, horseradish, and chili. Umami often comes in the form of dashi, seaweed stock.

Moritsuke Arrangement Styles

Moritsuke influences Japanese food from selection to serving on the plate. Cutting and arranging is a big part of it.

There are many formalized arranging styles, which you choose based on the type of food and plate or bowl. Odd numbers are considered lucky, so you’ll find many sets of threes, fives, or sevens in Japanese cuisine, and the asymmetry of off numbers has a special appeal to Japanese taste.

Common arrangements often resemble natural shapes, like mountains, trees, or waves.

For example, nagashimori (流し盛り) looks like waves of slices. It’s used for a long row of identical pieces. Nigiri-sushi and sashimi is often served this way.

Hiramori (平盛り) is useful when serving sashimi for many people on a large plate. It features a variety of rows of flat slices, with attention to color distribution.

The shape of a mountain is often made by kasanemori (重ね盛り) – stacking fillets piece by piece at different angles.
Tawamori (俵盛り) are neatly stacked, same pieces in a triangular shape.
Yosemori (寄せ盛り) uses only two or three contrasting ingredients next to each other.

There are many more formal and informal ways to serve food. Ultimately, there’s no right or wrong – just different levels of harmonious. Following the basic principles of moritsuke can help you achieve that Japanese flavor of beauty, but you can apply these principles and experiment with serving your favorite local ingredients too!

Balance and Beauty for a Good Appetite

With roots going as far as ancient Chinese philosophy, the intricate art of moritsuke strives for perfectly balanced meals, appealing to all five senses. Every piece counts.

Ultimately, moritsuke reminds us to treat food with respect and mindful consideration – and savor all (a)symmetry, flavor, color, and bite of the harmonious composition called dinner.