Face Food: The Visual Creativity of Japanese Bento Boxes

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Overview

Dating back several hundred years, the Japanese bento box is as integral a part of the country’s culinary identity as sushi. Today, a contemporary version of the bento box exists, inspired by the rampant popularity of movies, television shows and manga. These charaben, made by parents (mostly mothers) eager to bring attention to their children’s lunch boxes, comprise food crafted into visually creative, appealing and recognizable forms, and are as much about 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...

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More About This Book

Overview

Dating back several hundred years, the Japanese bento box is as integral a part of the country’s culinary identity as sushi. Today, a contemporary version of the bento box exists, inspired by the rampant popularity of movies, television shows and manga. These charaben, made by parents (mostly mothers) eager to bring attention to their children’s lunch boxes, comprise food crafted into visually creative, appealing and recognizable forms, and are as much about 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 the very real phenomenon of how rice, seaweed, mushrooms, tofu, hot dogs, fish cakes and just about any other edible delight you can imagine are shaped into the likes of Pikachu, Daraemon and Cinderella, bringing health, heart and imagination to the bento box, not to mention a bit of one-upmanship. A brief how-to guide, ingredient lists and interviews with charabenenthusiasts illuminate the many dynamic reasons behind this wholly Japanese pursuit.

As Salyers writes: “There is something marvelous and enchanting incharaben, a something we should all look to find within ourselves – a convalescence of youth. For all of you who have ever eaten or prepared a slap-dash PB&J sandwich, or have been victim of school cafeterias, I offer up these pages as proof that when you show this much dedication to what you or your child eats, the end result will be nothing short of astounding.”

If you have never seen or tasted charaben, Face Food will open a whole new world to you, proving once again how the visual can say so much about a culture and its practices.

Product Details

  • ISBN-13: 9780979048661
  • Publisher: Batty, Mark Publisher
  • Publication date: 3/15/2008
  • Pages: 80
  • Sales rank: 311,063
  • Product dimensions: 5.01 (w) x 7.03 (h) x 0.61 (d)

Customer Reviews

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Sort by: Showing all of 4 Customer Reviews

  • Posted August 5, 2009

    more from this reviewer

    Charaben as Art

    Food as Art is no new concept, but when some of the Japanese mothers who created this book's most beautiful obento will attest, obento are not made for you! The labor of love that goes into a bento box meal is for a parent's child and it is for the child's desires that these amazing and intricate designs are created. Not only are they nutritional and include the requisite rice, they are personalized for every child. When one father,Takupapa, was given as an example of the rare father who creates obento for his child, we can see how strong the Japanese value family above all else.

    The photographs of complete bento box meals are tummy-growl-inducing and very easy on the eyes. Although ingredients are listed with the photos, there are no real directions for creating your own obento. That is no surprise, for only practice can teach you how to create obento . The stories shared in the book are in their own way inspirational, as we learn that mothers do not necessarily compete with each other to make the superior obento, but rather, they share ideas and tips in order to create the best obento for their children.

    Obento is becoming more and more popular in America with the rise in healthier eating habits and the need for convenient meals. Americans may not be up to par with the Japanese when it comes to intricate meals served in convenient boxes, personalized per the eater's whims, but give us a few years and we will be that much closer to becoming a part of the obento culture!

    1 out of 1 people found this review helpful.

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  • Posted December 15, 2011

    Beautiful, but short. Inspiration available online.

    This photo book is printed on thick, high quality paper & has a nice hard cover. Colors are vivid.

    But it is just that, a photo book. There are 2 recipes in the back & some of the ingredients for the bentos shown are listed, but not all & not labeled in any way.

    This book is pretty, but small, short & there are better photos for inspiration online, if that's what you're looking for.

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  • Posted May 2, 2010

    more from this reviewer

    Art you can eat!

    Before I had read this book, I had heard and seen a little bit about the Bento box phenomenon but didn't know much about it. Christopher Salyers book is an open window into the culture of Japan, families and food. The book is a great combination of stories and pictures.

    Some photos of the Bento boxes are accompanied by a story revealing the creators reasons for doing them. All have a list of the ingredients used to make them. At the end of the book are a few different recipes for creating your own Bento boxes.

    This is another great photo book that lets you in to a culture that we sometimes don't fully understand or acknowledge. I found this book fascinating and I had wished it was a bit longer and had more stories in it. Buy this book, you won't be disappointed.

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  • Anonymous

    Posted March 28, 2008

    Another Approach to the Lunchbox Dilemma

    Christopher D. Salyers introduces us to an art form little known outside of Japan in this beautiful little book FACE FOOD. He spent time in Tokyo investigating this curiosity about the manner in which Japanese children take their lunch to school. What he has explored is a tradition of food preparation dating back to the Kamakura Period (1185 - 1333), a time when the Bento Boxes (`charaben') were first created. As with so many aspects of living in the Japanese view - from floral arrangements to tea ceremonies and flamboyant sushi preparation for hungry audiences at a sushi bar - the mothers of school children take great pride in creating little artworks out of the lunchbox items we usually just wrap in waxed paper. The foods are sculpted and arranged to form pictures: vegetable slices, fish cakes, cheese, eggs, fruits and, of course, rice are juxtaposed to resemble children's favorite popular cartoon characters or simply fantasy arrangements. And what Salyers brings to this collection of color photographs of the charaben creations is a social background of the mothers who gather to prepare these FOOD FACES, vying for the most inspired as well as the most nutritional product! The bulk of this book is devoted to photographs of the Bento Boxes, with the menu contained in each collection explained as well as the culinary `artist' being credited. Not only is this a fascinating little book to read and enjoy, it is also yet another art form that few of us in the West know. Perhaps we should take a hint at viewing sculpted food products as replacement for our fast food laziness - and at the same time find the pleasure in creating nutritional works for the children to proudly carry to school! Grady Harp

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