BENTO - "Lunch-Box"

Traditionally, people use to bring BENTO to the MINAMIZA, "Kabuki Theatre". Nowadays people have two options to eat in one of the many traditional restaurants around the theatre or buy a BENTO.

I took this picture this morning where Geiko and Maiko were handling BENTO to the audience that chose the BENTO option.

BENTO: The earliest records of packed lunches in Japan date back to around the fifth century, when people going out to hunt, farm, or wage war took food with them to eat on the job. They typically carried dried rice, which was eaten either in its dried state or after being rehydrated with cold or hot water, or rice balls.

According to the Nihon Shoki (Chronicles of Japan), Japan holds one of the oldest historic records in take away/ fast-food meals. For example Sushi originally was consumed as a fast-food meal.

The word Bento is often said to have originated with a sixteenth-century military commander named Oda Nobunaga (1534-82), who fed the large numbers of people at his castle by having food handed out to each individual. The word BENTO was coined to describe the simple meals that were distributed in this manner.

During the Edo period (1603-1868), people considered BENTO an essential accompaniment to outdoor excursions or the theatre. The makunouchi BENTO, which typically contains small rice balls sprinkled with sesame seeds and a rich assortment of side dishes, made its first appearance during this era. Makunouchi refers to the interval between the acts of a play, and the bento is said to have gotten its name from the fact that spectators ate it during intermission. (Nowadays a good BENTO box, is made in lacquer as in Edo period.)

In the Meiji period (1868-1912), when Japan's railway system came into being, the ekiben ("station bento," or box lunches sold at train stations) appeared. The first ekiben - rice balls with pickled apricots inside - was reportedly sold in 1885 at Utsunomiya Station in Tochigi Prefecture. Ekiben are still sold at Japanese train stations today in vast quantities.