The aesthetics of the Japanese lunchbox
By: Kenji Ekuan ; edited by David B. Stewart.
Contributors: Stewart, David B.
Publisher: MIT Press
Published: 1998
Place of publication: Cambridge, Mass
Language: eng
Number of pages: 195
Subjects: Aesthetics, Japanese; Japan -- Civilization
Description: The makunouchi bento, or traditional Japanese lunchbox, is a highly lacquered wooden box divided into quadrants, each of which contains different delicacies. But Kenji Ekuan shows that a much deeper reading is possible, one that sees the lunchbox as nothing less than a key to an understanding of Japanese civilization, the spirit of form, and the aesthetic ideal in which the many are reduced to one.