Comments on: Gender, Obentos, and the State in Japan

By: Unique and cute Japanese lunch boxes – Kawaii Obento 「かわいい」お弁当 | Nordic Kitchen - 北欧キッチン

Sat, 28 Mar 2015 08:44:25 +0000

[…] This online article gives some insights behind the creation of super cute obento boxes from the perspective of mothering. Referring to Anne Allison’s study, the author says; […]

By: Rachel

Rachel — Fri, 02 Dec 2011 00:03:00 +0000

You can buy kits, and people sell both kits and made-up ‘kindergarten sets’ on craft-based websites, and you can take sewing classes, and finally you can buy all the items in homeware stores or even in the 100yen shop. The faux pas here was *asking* and disturbing the collective, accepted, public belief that ‘home-made is best’. But I’m betting a lot of those parents went out and bought the stuff!

The FIRST thing we immigrant parents have to learn is the norms, but the SECOND is how those norms are circumvented. Japanese do it quietly, agreeing on the surface, then doing what they please anyway.

By: 果て無き空よ « 『送信者に戻れぬ』

果て無き空よ « 『送信者に戻れぬ』 — Sun, 16 Oct 2011 02:51:13 +0000

[…] families, setting up mats through out the entire school. If you have heard anything about Japanese お弁当 (o-bentō ‘lunchbox’) culture, rest assured that it is all true. Everyone seems to have […]

By: 果て無き空よ « 「幻燈機械」‏

果て無き空よ « 「幻燈機械」‏ — Fri, 14 Oct 2011 10:52:08 +0000

By: Gender, Obentos, and the State in Japan | Leaders Vision

Gender, Obentos, and the State in Japan | Leaders Vision — Tue, 20 Sep 2011 13:00:57 +0000

[…] more: thesocietypages.org Bookmark on Delicious Digg this post Recommend on Facebook Buzz it up Share on Linkedin Share on […]

By: Alessandra Zecchini

Alessandra Zecchini — Sat, 17 Sep 2011 22:53:00 +0000

I confess I love bentos, and I also cook with my daughter, we have just written a cookbook together, she is 12, I think that is is great for kids to be involved in cooking, and making “pretty things” comes natural to them :-).

Ciao
A.
http://alessandrazecchini.blogspot.com/

By: Korean Gender Reader « The Grand Narrative

Korean Gender Reader « The Grand Narrative — Sat, 17 Sep 2011 12:38:06 +0000

[…] – Gender, obentos, and the state in Japan […]

By: Anonymous

Anonymous — Sat, 17 Sep 2011 06:16:00 +0000

One of my blog readers alerted me to this article. You might find this recent article that I did for The Japan Times of interest, where I reported on how bentos are used at one kindergarten to educate children about nutrition, table manners and more: http://search.japantimes.co.jp/cgi-bin/fs20110407a3.html . I also did a little followup on my blog here: http://justbento.com/bentos-lunches-and-shokuiku-food-education-japanese-kindergarten . To answer one of your questions: yes, there are stay at home dads in Japan these days, though they aren’t numerous. (There are even a few dad-bento bloggers.) And, 1991 is not 2011.

By: Anonymous

Anonymous — Fri, 16 Sep 2011 06:25:00 +0000

Can I also add on that sometimes people like to make the cuter fancier obento for their friends/significant others/etc on birthdays/holidays? My friend made me one on my birthday, when I turned 16 and she was 18 at the time. She made her boyfriend one randomly, and she sometimes made them for herself when bored.

By: Maryn McKenna

Maryn McKenna — Fri, 16 Sep 2011 02:45:00 +0000

More updated than 1991: There’s an incredibly active bento-blog community that offers anthropological insight into modern constructions of motherhood. For instance: http://lunchinabox.net/, who is a Japanese-American resident in the US and packing daily bento for a child in a Japanese-immersion school.

By: Anonymous

Anonymous — Thu, 15 Sep 2011 18:45:00 +0000

Nursery schools carefully oversaw lunch. The entire obento must be eaten, and everyone had to wait until every child had finished — an important lesson in the importance of the group over the individual. Thus, part of the mother’s job was to make the food appealing and easy to consume, in an effort to encourage her child to eat and avoid the embarrassment of holding up the rest of the class from after-lunch recess. Making food brightly-colored, in various shapes, and in small portions helped with this process. If a child failed to eat the entire lunch, or ate slowly, both the child and mother were held accountable. I'm comparing this to two articles at Fooducate, about lunches -- both home-packed and purchased -- in US public schools. This piece, by a "sociologist, foodie and mom", takes for granted that by grade school, kids will be eating what they like of their lunches and disposing of what they don't. This one cites a report from the School Nutrition Association to the effect that most public-school students have dreadfully little time for lunch: the average grade-schooler has 25 minutes for the entire lunch break, including using the washroom, standing in the cafeteria line, eating, and getting outside for what playtime she can.

By: Filmi Girl

Filmi Girl — Thu, 15 Sep 2011 17:37:00 +0000

There have also been a few television dramas on the subject – the currently airing “Zenkai Girl” features a career woman who falls in love with a single dad; “My Girl” and “Bara no nai Hanaya” are two other recent dramas about single dads. The tone is generally sympathetic towards the dads and the troubles they face.

By: Lauren Shindo

Lauren Shindo — Thu, 15 Sep 2011 10:44:00 +0000

I have lived in Japan for the past 8 years, and while the fancy bento magazines and tools are popular, I can assure you the actual bentos are pretty rare (at least in my area of Tokyo). I have made a few fancy bentos for birthdays and special holidays, and every time the teacher has made a point of mentioning how surprised she was, which suggests that it is not that common. And in my informal survey of the local kindergarten and daycare (all stay-at-home moms), no one said that they made the fancy “kyaraben” (character bento).

Of course my experience is just anecdotal, but I would be willing to bet that these bentos were more common in the 80s when the economy was booming and there was a more conspicuous display of wealth (and leisure time). Now it seems like these are more of a hobby for some people now, but they are far from the norm.

By: Guest

Guest — Thu, 15 Sep 2011 07:00:00 +0000

I am 36, and have been making obento. sushi and onigiri since 1991… it was kind of related to being into anime…lol

So, it’s not only 20 somethings

By: Leah

Leah — Thu, 15 Sep 2011 01:23:00 +0000

Several of my coworkers in Japan either make lunches for their adult children who live at home or bring o-bento from home made by their mothers. (Not so much with the Pokemon, but this is a different audience.)

However, I’ve found that the other expat foodies and I often try to make cute o-bento for ourselves! There’s a whole site called Anna the Red’s Bento Factory (http://www.annathered.com/) where the blogger makes gorgeous o-bento for herself and her partner. My friends and I make o-bento for ourselves, too; one of my friends posts hers online: http://hkexpatcooking.wordpress.com/category/bento/

She made an amazing Pokemon bento once, but I fear it’s not featured on her site.

Even though it doesn’t address the issue of gender regarding child-rearing and food, it has been interesting to see how a bunch of 20-something foreign women have sort of changed the text of bento in making it for ourselves.