"Kobe beef" is today a globally recognized synonym for the pleasures of carnivorous indulgence.  But how was it that a port town in Japan, a country in which there were long standing taboos against killing cattle, came to have such a strong association with the production of beef?  This lecture will provide answers to this question, delving into the history of food, animal-human relations, social caste and cross-cultural contact in the Japanese archipelago in the context of the great social transformations of the nineteenth century.

The Jansen Lecture is followed by a reception at Prospect House.

Illustration: Amerika-jin togyū no zu” (“Illustration of an American killing a cow”), by Utagawa Yoshiiku, with text by Kanagaki Robun