Which period's food stalls are linked to Tokyo-style tempura?

Tokyo-style tempura is linked to food stalls of the Edo period.

The Edo period lasted from 1603 to 1868, when Japan’s cities grew and eating outside the home became increasingly popular. In Edo, now Tokyo, vendors sold quick, portable foods including soba, sushi, unagi, and tempura. Fresh seafood from Tokyo Bay helped make battered, fried fish especially attractive.

This stall tradition also shaped the dish’s cooking style. Tempura was commonly fried outdoors because cooking with large amounts of oil was considered a fire hazard in wooden, paper-built homes. The pieces could be skewered, served hot, and eaten immediately with dipping sauce.

A common mix-up is treating all Japanese tempura history as one unchanged tradition. Earlier versions associated with Portuguese cooking used a thicker, seasoned batter and lard; Edo-style cooks later moved toward a lighter batter of flour, egg, and water. The modern Tokyo form therefore belongs specifically to the Edo-period food-stall culture, even though the dish’s deeper roots reach back to sixteenth-century Nagasaki.