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Face Food: The Visual Creativity of Japanese Bento BoxesIntroduced more than eight centuries ago, the Japanese bento (boxed lunch) is integral to the country's culinary identity.
Once inspired by the changing seasons and traditional artistic motifs, the bento box today illustrates the rampant popularity of movies, television shows and manga.
Called charaben (short for character bento), these masterpieces are created by parents, mostly mothers, to attract attention to their children's lunch boxes, and to bring schoolyard fame to their creative moms, who painstakingly craft ordinary food into visually creative, appealing and recognizable forms.
The resulting charaben are as much about artistic and material planning and preparation as nutrition.
What better way to make children eat than to turn their midday meals into cartoon characters and video games?
With Face Food: The Visual Creativity of Japanese Bento Boxes, writer and designer Christopher D Salyers documents a nationwide phenomenon: the daily transformation of rice, seaweed, mushrooms, tofu, hot dogs, fish cakes and just about any other edible delight into the likes of Pikachu, Daraemon and Cinderella, whereby parents bring health, heart and imagination to the bento box.
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Face Food: The Visual Creativity of Japanese Bento Boxes > Food Design Books
February 19, 2008 | Viewed 31,477 time(s)
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