Glossary entry

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Glossary entry

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Itadakimasu. Traditional phrase opening a meal.

Reader comments

From EO [alt.food.sushi, 12 February 2020]: ``From a very young age, growing up in a Japanese-American household, we were taught to pause before meals, gassho (put your hands together in prayer) and say `Itadakimasu' (pronouced EAT-tah-dah-key-mas, with the u on the end half-supressed and trailing off) in the same fashion that grace would be said before a meal. I don't know if it's of Japanese Buddhist or simply Japanese origin. My understanding is that it translates literally to `I am ready to eat'. At (buddhist) temple it was explained that it's to insert a pause and moment to reflect upon all of the things that went into the meal you're about to consume(the person(s) preparing the meal, the farmers growing the food, the animals who gave their lives, etc.) and thank them. Since the sect of buddhism I was raised with (jodo shinshu) was pretty adaptive in their practices, it may have been them putting their spin on a general Japanese custom.''
From MNem [alt.food.sushi, 25 July 2020]: ``We don't do `gassho' unless you are a buddhist or you are acting funny.''

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