Chapter 157: Tokugawa 123

In fact, the deliciousness of autumn eggplant has been praised by ancient people since ancient times.

There was even a saying in the Edo period specifically about this: "Don't give autumn eggplants to your wife."

According to a comprehensive understanding of the story behind the saying, "Autumn eggplants are so delicious that the mother-in-law is reluctant to give them to her daughter-in-law."

In fact, this statement is often interpreted in a very wrong way today.

Because "eat" in Japanese also has two meanings, in the past few years, it has often been interpreted by people with strange ideas as "mother-in-law is reluctant to give it to her daughter-in-law."

Although this is really weird no matter how you say it, when you think about it carefully, you will find that it is not generally reasonable.

"Autumn eggplants..." Thinking about this, Yoshiyuki sighed and said something like this: "That seems to be Tokugawa Ieyasu's favorite too."

"Hey? Is this happening?" Erina was very surprised when she heard this.

"Miss, this is a compulsory course of Japanese history in junior high school!" Yoshiyuki complained helplessly: "You can get it in the exam!

"What, I'm not listening." Erina snorted and announced with her hands on her hips: "If that's the case, isn't it natural?"

"Miss, please don't speak so confidently, please!"

"Ah, I have seen such a question before in junior high school!" Chiai Yingxue clapped her hands and said happily: "But the question I encountered was not just about what Tokugawa Ieyasu's favorite food is, but what is Tokugawa Ieyasu's favorite food? Ask Tokugawa Ieyasu what are the "one, two, and three" of his hobbies!"

"One, two, three?" Erina rubbed the dumplings in her arms, thought for a moment, and suddenly realized: "Oh~ I've heard of this before! It's one Fuji, two eagles, tempura!"

"No, Miss! Only the last item is wrong! The third one is eggplant!"

In fact, there is no conclusion on what disease Tokugawa Ieyasu died of or what food he ate that caused the disease.

But the most famous saying is undoubtedly "Eat tempura to death."

This theory holds that Tokugawa Ieyasu had a light diet throughout his life and had accumulated a lot of stomach problems during the war. After eating sea bream tempura, he felt that the taste was amazing, so he ate a lot and died of a sudden illness.

But in fact, according to historical data, he probably did not eat tempura, but probably some kind of fried food similar to it, and added sesame seeds to it.

All in all, this is as unsolved a mystery as why Mitsuhide Akechi launched the Honnoji Rebellion.

The meaning of "two and three" refers to Tokugawa Ieyasu's three major hobbies in life: overlooking Mount Fuji, flying eagles for hunting and eating eggplants.

He was particularly fond of eggplant, to the point where he dubbed it "the food of men who dominate the world."

Yoshiyuki has always wanted to know Tokugawa Ieyasu's favorite way to eat eggplant in autumn, but he has never found exact historical data.

As a guess, there are probably two types of food: roasted food and boiled food. The former is more likely.

To be more precise, it's about salt-grilled eggplant and miso or soy sauce-boiled eggplant.

For a more extravagant garnish, you may add chopped garlic to the grilled eggplant to create a garlic-roasted eggplant dish.

But Tokugawa Ieyasu was always stingy, so he probably rarely ate like this.

After all, in Japan at that time, spices such as garlic, ginger, and spicy leeks were very expensive and were regarded as medicinal ingredients. Only when you need to recuperate your body will you be willing to eat a little.

In fact, Tokugawa Ieyasu became an old man in his later years, so he also had a fourth hobby: having girls accompany him to his bed.

However, such unorthodox content will not be written in the textbook.

Think about it, if such a passage is written seriously in the textbook, the teacher will feel more joyful when giving lectures.

"Tokugawa Ieyasu's hobbies can be summarized as one, two, three and four. It means one Fuji, two eagles, three eggplants and four girls! Students must remember this, because they will pass the exam!"

Then the classmates will all remember that he is an old dog.

For the rest of my life, my impression of Tokugawa Ieyasu was that of a crooked old man.

The Tokugawa shogunate regime was naturally a Shibori regime.

It's really annoying.

Tokugawa Ieyasu's stinginess is extremely rare in human history.

The celebration banquet for the unification of the world only had a few shabby dishes, and they were not as sumptuous as the dishes usually served by daimyo.

The salaries given to retainers were also quite low. The important reason why his men didn't run away was that Ieyasu was very good at talking to them about his feelings and ideals, which moved them to tears and vowed to follow him to the death. From this point of view, he is the target of parody by many contemporary evil corporate presidents.

In fact, he often only eats rice (white rice or wheat rice), miso soup and pickles. Occasionally, just rice and two pieces of pickled radish can complete the meal.

Regarding Tokugawa Ieyasu's stinginess, there is also such a rumor that is not true or false: the maids in Tokugawa Ieyasu's house complained that the daily meals were too poor, only rice and pickled radish. After Ieyasu heard this, he said, "If you think pickled radish If the radish doesn’t taste good, don’t eat it.”

Later, when the meal was served, the maids could only eat white rice.

There is a high probability that this story was made up by later generations to discredit him, but given Tokugawa Ieyasu's character, it is not surprising that he actually did such a thing.

There is another well-documented story about maids and pickles.

It was the Ooku maids who complained that the pickles were too salty, and Ieyasu, as a leader who was more considerate of his servants, went to ask the person in charge of the kitchen. As a result, the person in charge said that even according to the current method of making pickles, a lot of pickles are consumed every day. If it suits their taste. Wouldn't that cost more money?

After hearing this, Tokugawa Ieyasu felt deeply justified and stopped caring about the matter.

After reading this passage of scripture, Yoshiyuki said with emotion - for this old fox, although the feelings of the servants are very important, saving money is the first priority.

Keeping the kitchen door open consumes a lot of electricity. So Yoshiyuki reminded Erina that now that she had finished reading, it was almost time to close the book.

After that, the three of them returned to the living room.

After walking around Yingxue's house, Yoshiyuki felt that although Yingxue was poor, the environment was really clean. He is also very positive about life.

Besides, if you think about it carefully, it seems good to have such a sister!

The shrine is so close to the school, so you can come and sit there often.

If she brought condolences from time to time as a normal friend, Yingxue might not be willing to accept it. But as a sister, it doesn’t matter!

It's only natural for a sister to take some of her sister's things.

But speaking of it...the only drawback is this!

He doesn’t want to be a sister!

Even if he is called a bad brother, he is still better than his sister!

Because Yoshiyuki is a real man at heart, and he is very brave.

Apart from anything else, just being able to do this a dozen times a night is not something that ordinary people can do.