HIMEMIKO*WEB

Noblemen began to drink milk. Vegetables fried with oil, and meat or seaweeds sauteed or browned with oil were in their dishes.

Rice was steamed before eating. Steamed rice, or kowaii, was a main dish of people of the high class. Boiled rice, or himeii, was softer than kowaii and offered to women, people of old age, and little children. Congee was made for persons of illness. Travelers and soldiers carried dried steamed rice, and before eating outside water was poured on it to make it soft enough to eat.

In the stable period in the latter half of the 7th centuries, various kinds of fish, shellfish, animal flesh and vegetables were brought from all the provinces of Japan to the capital as tribute. The Emperor down to Imperial members and noblepersons enjoyed white rice and a wide variety of precious foods including ear shells mixed with paste of sea urchin eggs, sea breams, boiled and seasoned ayu, melons pickled in sake lees, and wakame seaweed soup.

Agar, walnuts, ume, loquats were eaten as dessert. Sake was drunk together with the meals.

Cheese and dairy products were also made in this era. Japanese ancient cheese called so was made from newly produced milk by boiling it down seven hours to make it dried up. It was very precious and was available to only Imperial members and the noblepersons of the highest ranks.

Perishable products brought from distant provinces were processed before shipping, including pickling with salt. Raw fish were preserved by putting in the steamed rice mixed with vinegar. It was the beginning of making sushi.

The first Saio was Toyosuki Irihime no Mikoto, a daughter of Sujin Tenno, who began to enshrine the Goddess at a sanctuary near the palace. She did the Saio's duty at the sanctuary. After Yamatohime no Mikoto, a daughter of Suinin Tenno, removed the sanctuary to Ise and built Ise Jingu Shrine, an Abstinence-palace (or Saiku) was erected within the forest on the bank of the Isuzu River near the shrine, and it was used for the Saio's residence.

The Saio's duty was handed over to princesses several times, but several decades later nobody wanted to do it. The Saio system was suspended for a long time.

The Emperor, Temmu Tenno, restarted the system. Because he prayed the Goddess for winning a victory prior to the Jinshin campaign and his wish was successfully achieved, he needed to hold thank-you ceremonies to the Goddess. He appointed Ohku no Himemiko, one of his daughters, the first Saio and sent her to the shrine of Ise Jingu. Since then, the Saio System lasted more than 600 years as one of Japan's important religious policies.

Once a himemiko was chosen as the next Saio, she was made to enter an Abstinence-room within the Palace called shosai in, meaning "the first abstinence room" to drive away evil spirits haunted to her. She was to stay in the shosai in for one year, and then she was made to remove to an Abstinence-house called nonomiya, meaning "a palace in the field," in the suburban area and stayed there for the next one year. In the third year, the new Saio and her servants departed nonomiya and made procession for Ise.

The Saio on duty was forbidden to get married or to have any form of interaction with male persons. All she could do was to serve the goddess until she resigned.

As the Saio was delegated the power from the Emperor, she was treated as almost the same as him. For that reason, the Abstinence-palace was considered as the same as the Emperor's Palace and the officers serving the Saio had the considerable power, independent of any government subsidiary.

"One Emperor, one Saio" was the basic rule of the Saio System. If an emperor resigned or died, the Saio had to retire from the position. She was made to be dismissed from the duty if one of her parents, siblings or relatives died.

Once the Saio was bounced, she left the Abstinence-palace and proceeded for the capital, taking a different route from proceeding towards the Abstinence-palace. She was made to conduct a special ritual to "return from a Saio to a normal girl" prior to her entry to the capital.