Sushi, Buddhism, and Tigers
The Washington Post talked about sushi, a Japanese type of dish consisting of rice and fish and shellfish.
(http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/11/23/AR2006112301158.html)
Their reporters seem to be very knowledgeable about Japanese cuisine and the culture behind it.
However, I would like to add some to it.
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Japanese had been officially forbidden to eat animal-meat from the seventh century to the late 19th century by governments and social authorities influenced by Buddhism.
Though animal-meat diets were actually practiced occasionally and especially in the Age of Civil Wars in Japan around the 16th century, most people avoided eating meat of cows, horses, boars, birds, etc. in order to observe the teachings of Buddha who had forbidden killing living things.
But they had not forbidden people to eat fish and shellfish. And since food staple in Japan has been rice for these 2000 years, it is natural consequence that people tried hard to find other dishes that matched rice, which was fish.
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The origin of contemporary sushi is the sushi fermented with fish and vegetables (called nare-zushi) that was first invented in Southeast Asia from which ancestors of some modern Japanese had emigrated in ancient times.
Some descriptions on nare-zushi are found in the 10th century's official documents of the Imperial Dynasty.
When vinegar was widely introduced into the Japanese society under the regime of the Tokugawa samurai clan since the 17th century, nare-zushi developed into a new style of cuisine which led to formation of contemporary sushi.
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Therefore Japanese traditionally ate sushi instead of beef.
They didn't have to kill a cow or an ox to take in an animal protein.
Killing fish is not so bloody or wild as killing cows and other big animals.
You can be a lay Buddhist.
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In a temple of Thai, they feed and keep tigers. When they were cubs just losing their mother, they were found and rescued by monks of the temple.
After growing up, those tigers are still kept in the temple, but they never attack monks and other people or animals, since they don't know the taste of blood.
Those monks give meat to tigers but such meat does not include blood. After almost completely taking out blood from meat, they give it to tigers as food.
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Sushi is better than beef for man.
Meat without blood is good for tigers living in the human world.
However, Jesus Christ said not to mind what you eat and what you put on.
I am highly convinced that man can win tigers with this spirit.
"HIS BODY DID NOT ROT IN GRAVE"