Eric C. Rath is a professor of history at the University of Kansas, where he teaches courses on food history and premodern Japan. A leading specialist in Japanese food culture, Rath has authored more than thirty articles on Japanese food culture from ancient to modern times, covering the history of food rituals, heirloom vegetables, confectionery, restaurants, tableware and eating competitions. His books include Food and Fantasy in Early Modern Japan (2010), Japanese Foodways Past and Present coedited with Stephanie Assmann (2010), Japan’s Cuisines: Food, Place and Identity (2016), and Oishii: The History of Sushi (2021). He is on the editorial board of the Oxford Research Encyclopedia for Food Studies and is a founding member of the editorial collective of Gastronomica: The Journal for Food Studies. He has written for the popular publications Sake Today and The Sake Times, and his most recent book is Kanpai: The History of Sake (Reaktion Books, 2025). His next book project is a general history of Japanese food.
