Wheat in Ancient Ages
Wheat as "food"
The beginning of the wheat dates back about 10,000 years.
It is believed that the indigenous people
in the Near and Middle East and Central Asia first
found wild wheat from weeds which have grown in the prairie when they were hunting.
At that time, they ate it raw, roasting, or gruel.
Transmission into Japan
It is said to be about 4-5 centuries
that wheat was handed down to Japan.
As evidence, there are three Wakas composing
about wheat in Manyoshu.
However, the cultivation of wheat which liked dry lands did not readily spread out in wet Japan.
It is another reason why the Japanese were unwilling to grow wheat that
the harvest time and the rainy season come at the same time.
Later rice which likes a swamp became more and more popular than wheat.
