Japan’s Warring States period, needless to say, was a very different era than today’s Japan. Perhaps precisely due to these dramatic differences from the present, especially as regards a perceived emasculation of contemporary men compared to the hyper-masculine heroes of the past, the Warring States period is enjoying a recent boom in the realm of Japanese popular culture. But significant problems remain for anyone seeking to render films about Japan’s war-torn past appealing to the peace-loving viewers of today. How to make this savage period of Japan’s history palatable to twenty-first century audiences?

The answer is “culinary continuity.” The 2017 hit Honnōji Hotel makes a powerful continuity argument, fueled by konpeito and aburamochi (whose flavors are allegedly unchanged), offering a dangerously distorted view of Japan’s cultural heritage. The radical revisionism of this re-mythologization of Japan’s warring states period is an ominous sign of a larger trend that has emerged in Japanese cinema in recent years. The savagery of the bloody past is stripped away, replaced with saccharine-sweet sentiments like “I want to create a world full of smiles.” The film’s 1.5 million viewers might well be convinced by this film’s (mis)characterization of Japan’s heritage.

In this paper, I analyze Honnōji Hotel’s reimagining of history, arguing that the film’s box-office success happened because of this food-fueled ‘de-clawing’ of warring states Japan, not despite it. Contemporary Japanese audiences appear to reward films who claim a comforting continuity between Japan’s war-torn past and peaceful present, a position which must not go unchallenged.