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This article discusses the symbolic role played by food and drink in the Russian discovery of Japan. The Russian discovery of Japanese food culture in the eighteenth, nineteenth and early twentieth centuries illustrates the various points of conflict and convergence in two distinct cultural systems. An analysis of material drawn from memoirs written by Russians who visited Japan between the eighteenth century and the First World War is presented. The major themes that emerge from the Russian narratives in relation to food and hospitality can be broadly designated economic, political, cultural and aesthetic.