Page:Japanese Physical Training (Hancock).djvu/42

14 race might be improved through attainment to greater size. One of the questions that his Majesty propounded to the commission was as to whether the successful encouragement of a partial meat diet would be of advantage. The report of the commission, when its long and arduous labours had been completed, was to the efifect that no material advantage could result from increase in height or weight. So far as meat diet went, the commission reported that the Japanese had always managed to do without it, and that their powers of endurance and their athletic prowess exceeded those of any of the Caucasian races. Japan's diet stands on a foundation of rice. This is prepared either by boiling or by steaming. This grain, as it is prepared by a Japanese housewife, bears no resemblance to the sodden mess that is placed occasionally on American tables. The grain comes to the table—which, in Japan, is usually the floor—soft, steaming, and a palatable food that requires no condiments to make it highly acceptable to the stomach. When the rice is boiled it is never stirred. When the rice is steamed it of course requires no stirring. Of