[War & Business] Kasutera and Gasujeora

[Image source=Asia Economy DB]

[Asia Economy Reporter Hyunwoo Lee] Today, the bread known as 'Kasutera,' which is said to have originated in Nagasaki, Japan, was originally a Portuguese food derived from the word 'Castelo,' meaning a defensive castle. It is said to have gotten its name because it is made in a large donut shape, resembling a round fortress wall. Along with the arquebus, it was one of the Western cultural items introduced from Portugal to Japan around the late 16th century during the Imjin War. The Japanese, like with the arquebus, repeatedly modified Kasutera and transformed it into their own food.

Kasutera was transmitted not only to Japan but also to Joseon around the same period. After Joseon was defeated by the Qing Dynasty in the Byeongjahoran of 1636, Joseon envoys who went to pay tribute to Qing received it as a gift from Portuguese Jesuit missionaries who were conducting missionary activities while staying in China. The Joseon envoys phonetically transcribed Castelo into Chinese characters as 'Gasujeora (加須底羅)' and brought along books introducing the cooking method.

Both Joseon scholars and Japanese samurai liked this food. The reason was that Kasutera had a very high sugar content at the time. Portuguese Castelo was a preserved food with a lot of sugar added to keep the bread for a long time on ships. Since the 16th century, large-scale sugarcane plantations had been established in American colonies, making sugar abundant in the West. However, in the East, sugar was still very rare, and foods with high sugar content were considered luxury items for the nobility.

It is said that Joseon scholars liked it very much despite their pride. Records remain that whenever the Joseon Tongsinsa (envoys) went to Japan, they loudly demanded Gasujeora to be served. There are even records that when Kasutera was excluded from the banquet menu due to budget shortages on the Japanese side, they questioned why it was not served.

Kasutera has become established as a representative Japanese food beyond Portugal to this day, but Gasujeora disappeared without a trace. Although it was certainly a delicious food for Joseon scholars as well, their Neo-Confucian mindset regarded Gasujeora, along with Portuguese Catholicism and Western technology, as foreign cultural items that should not be accepted together. The differing mindsets of the two countries that divided the fate of these two breads ultimately reversed the destinies of the two nations at the crossroads of modernization in the 19th century.