During the Meiji Period from 1868 to 1912, beef was considered an expensive delicacy consumed by those of higher status or wealth, as over a short period of time cattle became a symbol associated with modernization. Popular writers of this era have helped to perpetuate the symbol of beef into the Japanese subconscious through complicating it’s status using satiric and comedic means.

Kanagaki Robun, a popular fiction writer of the Meiji period set one of his comic novels in a beef restaurant on Asakusa Street in Tokyo. Aguranabe, sometimes translated as "Sitting Cross-Legged at the Beef Pot" was shown to reveal the depraved reputation that beef restaurants called asgyû-nabe-ya had at the time, demonstrating the conflicted space through which beef had been recognized, as people saw consuming beef as both civilizing and destructive.

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Kanagaki's writings reflected the attitudes of many Japanese at the time who considered beef-eaters to be both of society’s most exemplary members due to the status and price, yet also associated with gluttonous degenerates - which we see reflected in Aguranabe through characters that include an ill-tempered samurai, a hack writer, a lazy man who frequents brothels, and an easygoing prostitute who enjoys snacking.



In the opening a man is described as wearing western styled clothes with a covered umbrella, and is seen as taking every measure he can to come off as modern and sophisticated. From time to time he is seen removing from his sleeve in an obvious manner as if to show off, a cheap watch to consult the time. Kanagaki narrates here "As a matter of fact this is merely so much display to impress others, and the chain is only gold-plate" Illustrating the stereotype of the beef-eater as perhaps having more "pomp" than substance.