Earlier, we said that Yuinchi is a kitchen, but if we look at the Kanji, we can see the literal meaning is “a place for goods to gather (寄) and be full (満 or Man).” One item that was always in stock was grains, as it’s said that grains hold spiritual power. If the King eats enough grains then it’s believed he will be bestowed with vitality, and the kingdom will be prosperous.

The Yuinchi was mainly used to prepare food for the King and his family. Rather than serving Ryukyuan cuisine, records show that chefs from the Satsuma Regime prepared the food, meaning it would have been closer to Washoku or Japanese cuisine.

We still have the record of the menus from the end of the Ryukyu Kingdom, proving that the king used to eat Washoku. Using those records, we can piece together the connection between traditional Ryukyuan dishes with the current Okinawan cuisine, like snacks such as chinsuko or kunpen. Even the way pork is cooked “leaving out nothing but the oink,” is a distinctly Okinawan style as opposed to Chinese or Japanese, and these traditions continue to this day.

By the way, what would the court ladies eat?

They had modest meals, were paid in rice every month, and would gather to eat together. But they were limited to rice, so they had to find creative ways to add flavor. Some ways they did so was by using some of the seasonings from the Yuinchi, or using leftovers from the meals of the royal family. If they were lucky, they could scavenge some of the leftovers after events or they would be given the offerings used during religious ceremonies.