talking about the strong love for bananas in japan also reminds me of the (frankly fabulous) author banana yoshimoto, though their adopting the name was actually inspired more by the banana flower rather than the fruit, itself...
so now I want to ask: do the yiga incorporate all portions of the banana trees/plant into their diet & culture? would we see the banana blossoms integrated into traditional patterns/artwork? the leaves being used not only in cuisine, but also in architecture and design?
Yes! I think I’ve mentioned it in passing before, but the Yiga do utilize every aspect of the banana plant, be it in cuisine or beyond. The leaves are especially used to steam foods, as plates / placemats, for storing / carrying food, and so on and so forth. Banana blossoms are essentially a vegetable, so they get incorporated into dishes, and even certain varieties of green bananas get utilized in savory dishes ( such as curries, stir fries, and salads). No part goes wasted. Basically, bananas are a huge backbone of their dietary culture, to no one’s surprise. But it goes beyond just eating plain bananas.
They’ve also got banana sake as a cultural speciality. Sake is traditional among the Sheikah, but they’ve perfected the art of producing sake using banana along with rice in the fermentation process.
I would like to think design motifs are used in clothing patterns and art. Banana trees don’t provide any sort of wood though, it’s basically just a large plant, so it’s doubtful the plant could be used in any useful way in large scale architecture. Maybe they make little carvings and things out of it, though. I’ve read that banana stems can be used for textiles and paper making, therefore it’s applicable with the Yiga when they go out to harvest bananas en masse ( again, they don’t live in the Faron region where bananas grow and they can’t be harvested in the desert, so they logistically have to send out suppliers to get bananas to bring back home. ) Banana stems make good juice with health benefits too! So I imagine this is a popular drink, perhaps employed in traditional teas to add more flavor alongside the dried leaves.
I’m imagining in a post-AOC setting where the Yiga set up their own village in the Faron Region that they end up utilizing bananas a lot more in their art and architecture simply because bananas are a natural part of the environment there. You’ll probably find banana trees all over the dang place, lining pathways with banana leaves with trees in gardens and as decorations around dwellings.
Lest we forget that the banana thing isn’t just a Yiga thing, it’s from the Ancient Sheikah (Maz Koshia falls for the banana trick you can use in the Yiga hideout in BOTW)!!! So I have the hc that the Ancient Sheikah cultivated and hybridized dozens of different banana types and varieties (for instance, the Philippines has over 20 different kinds). A lot got lost over the centuries simply because they were driven away from their original home and lost so many of their methods, though they left records behind that the Yiga mainly kept in tact. So, in a post AOC-setting again, the Yiga are thriving and bringing the bonanaza boom back to the world!
