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Interpretations of the Bento

Many scholars have had a take on the bento in the late 20th century. The foundation of their approach is based on the idea that food can carry many different meanings (cite ekiben article).

In the 1970’s, Chie Nakane used the ekiben, a specific type of bento sold in train stations, as a metaphor for group organization in Japan. By comparing this variety bento to groups in Japan, he considered how different organizations in Japanese society often include identical components so it does not depend on any other groups for its success (cite ekiben article). For O-Young Lee in 1984, the bento is utilized to present the reductionism tendencies of Japanese culture. All the food in this Japanese style lunch box is only able to be reduced to fit in a little box due to it being Japanese food; it naturally lends itself to being tightly packed (cite Lee book). Roland Barthes, on the other hand, used a symbolic approach to describe the lack of a centerpiece in Japanese food. He described the distinct contents of a bento box as a multitude of fragments or ornaments that are thrown together to beautify each other (cite barthes book). Joseph Jay Tobin in 1992 discussed how the meticulous assembly of individual bentos has been aided by the reinterpretation of Western goods, practices, and ideas through a process he classified as domestication (cite Tobin book).

In 1991, Ann Allison gives an interpretation of the obento, another variant of the bento, as an “ideological state apparatus” that is a conduit for motherhood, education, and the state (cite ekiben) in her book Permitted and Prohibited Desires: Mothers, Comics, and Censorship in Japan. She has stated that the mother, who is the producer of the obento, and the child, who is the consumer, are both under heavy scrutiny by the institutions surrounding them and their roles in society are further cemented through the ideological and gendered meanings embedded with the obento. (cite allison)

The basis for Allison’s argument is from a concept created by Louis Althusser. The idea behind an ideological state apparatus is that they are able to exert power through ideology through items like mass media and education rather than through repression (cite althusser). The ideology becomes effective as it manifests into one’s identity instead of it remaining as an outside thought (Cite allison).

Allison structures her thoughts into three sections, with the first being an investigation of Japanese food as a cultural myth. She presents old Japanese obento magazines and journals that describe concerns on the strains that the obento puts on the mother and the child which segways into her point that the significance of this Japanese lunch box goes much deeper than that of mere sustenance, which is the first-order myth (cite allison). Since one of the codes regarding the presentation of Japanese food emphasizes the look of naturalness over genuine naturality (cite richie), Allison articulates that this is how Japanese food can be subject to cultural and ideological manipulation. This is where it becomes a second-order myth as the practice of the obento is able to serve a different end. As a result, she takes the presence of an order to the food to suggest a fundamentally correct way to do things in society (cite allison).

Allison builds upon the previous statements and presents a third order that deals with manipulation and the rituals surrounding the obento: the school system instills the routine with the obentos in order to assimilate the mothers and their children to the gendered roles that are expected of them by the state (cite allison). It is believed that schools shape children’s views on the world and that the rules and patterns of group living in Japan are introduced to a child starting in nursery school. As a result, the obento becomes a test for the child as finishing the entire obento in a timely manner is encouraged and enforced by the nursery school teacher (cite allison). Furthermore, the successful integration into the Japanese school system can be seen to depend on the child’s deference to authority and learned knowledge to obey rules through the obento practice. Even if a child is caught committing a wrongdoing in school, the teacher may describe the child’s progress on his or her obento instead of directly referencing the misbehavior (cite allison).

This discussion wraps up by relating motherhood to the obentos. A child would not be able to take an obento to school without the labor of the mother. On average, mothers spend anywhere from twenty-five to forty-five minutes every morning preparing their child’s obento and even more time is dedicated to preparing on the previous day (cite allison). Allison interprets this as a sign of a woman’s commitment to being a mother which in turn should influence her child to be a good student. She takes it one step further by explaining the experience of making the obento becomes a part of the mother’s identity (cite allison). As this process starts at the nursery school level, Allison determines that motherhood becomes institutionalized through the child’s school. This means that the obento is not only a test for the child, but it also becomes a representation and product of the mother herself (cite allison).