Photo/Illutration The Momonjiya restaurant in Tokyo’s Ryogoku district dates to the 18th century and is one of the first establishments that served a boar meat dish. (Noriyasu Nukui)

The estimated average height of Japanese men reached 163 centimeters during the Kofun Period, which ran from the end of the third century to around the seventh century.

But then they began to shrink.

A key factor behind this is believed to be a series of decrees issued by the imperial court and successive rulers not to eat animal meat. The meat ban lasted for more than 1,000 years until the early part of the Meiji Era (1868-1912).

Denied access to a major source of protein, Japanese people could not grow to their physical potential.

In the Edo Period (1603-1867), the average height for men was estimated at 157 cm.

The first ban was imposed in 675 by Emperor Tenmu, who prohibited consumption of cows, horses, dogs, monkeys and chickens.

The emperor, a devout Buddhist, is said to have followed the Buddhist precept not to kill living creatures.

Pork, which was not covered by the order, was added later.

But the general public apparently did not strictly follow the ban, forcing the court and the top leaders to repeatedly issue similar orders to make people toe the line.

Still, many kept eating meat, including the powers that be.

One notable example was Tokugawa Yoshinobu (1837-1913), the 15th and last shogun. One of his favorite foods was a pork dish, earning him the nickname “Lord Tonichi” that included the Japanese word for pork.

In the Edo Period, a number of establishments called “momonji-ya” served wild game in what is now Tokyo.

The existence of such establishments is documented in a “ukiyo-e” woodblock print by Utagawa Hiroshige (1797-1858), an acclaimed artist active toward the end of Edo Period.

A large sign that reads “yamakujira,” Japanese slang for wild boar, is depicted on the left side of his work called “Bikunihashi Bridge in the Snow.”

In the Ryogoku district of the capital, Momonjiya, a restaurant dating to the 18th century, still offers a boar meat hot pot.

It started as a Chinese medicine pharmacy in 1718, but it was turned into a restaurant after a boar meat dish it offered as “medicine and diet treatment” became popular.

A number of other shops also offered game dishes, but they were forced to close down in the early Meiji Era.

With the ban on meat consumption officially lifted, sukiyaki with beef took off among the public and pushed aside game dishes.

With no such thing as refrigerators in the Edo Period, people preserved meat by hanging it on sunless north-facing walls of a house.

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