“O-ben-to-o-o-o!”

Ekiben, first recorded in 1885, are derived from a larger genre of centuries-old bento culture. Bentos have made appearances in The Tale of Genji (1000 AD), where nobles ate portable rice balls filled with umeboshi, and the lunchboxes of warriors fighting under Oda Nobunaga during the 15th-century Warring States Period (Noguchi 1994: 321). When Kabuki theater became a popular, but time-consuming pastime during the Edo Period (1603-1867), spectators would bring “makunouchi bentos,” or between-curtains lunch, to balance on their laps and eat during intermissions (ibid; Hashimoto and Telfer 2019; Wells 1982; Figure 2.1). These bentos were soon brough to sumo matches as well. Hashimoto and Telfer found these bentos were made of disposable or biodegradable materials, such as bamboo sheets, large leaves, or tree back, and “interestingly, all of these materials are still in use today” (107). In general, the structural principle behind portable bentos is 50 percent rice and many smaller portions of other ingredients, from meat to seafood to pickled vegetables (Richie 1975: 71). The makunouchi form of bento is considered to be the direct ancestor of ekiben as we know it. 

After the first rail line opened in 1872, vendors began to offer ekiben to passengers alongside trains in waiting. Matsumoto described these sales as rousing spectacles: “Vendors went about with a strap dangling from their necks, suspended from which, at roughly waist level, was a large case piled high with ekiben. When a locomotive arrived at the station, the vendors would cry out, adding the honorific prefix ‘o’ and picturesquely prolonging the last syllable, ‘O-ben-to-o-o-o!’” (2000: 70). He adds that original train models accelerated slowly, so vendors could complete hectic, last-minute sales with passengers through open windows (Figure 2.2). At stations in Yokogawa, Takasaki, Kunifutsu, and Shizuoaka, ekiben menus had hierarchical priced tiers—a passenger could order regular, middle, or superior boxes (Noguchi 320).

Hashimoto and Telfer say by 1916, customer feedback forms for ekiben were made available (108). Further, a 1924 survey (researched by Kikuko Oda and translated by Hashimoto and Telfer) “revealed that an overwhelming number of consumers had requested that regional delicacies or seasonal ingredients be incorporated into ekiben” (ibid; Oda 1980). Before the 1929 Depression, annual consumption of ekiben reached 100 million units (ibid).

Fast Train, Slow Sales. Busy Festivals, More Ekiben!

At first, meticulously made ekiben were at odds with Japan’s modernizing infrastructure. The shinkansen was a sign of recovery for a post-war nation: High-speed rail paralleled Japan’s rise in economy, population, development, and technological output. As people traveled faster and farther, the country’s GDP boomed and widened. Ekiben, a food born out of the necessity to eat on the go in a rapidly industrializing city, could not keep up. Due to their sheer speed, shinkansen do not follow local stopping patterns and require sealed windows (Matsumoto 65; Hashimoto and Telfer 109). The window sale scheme of peddling vendors tanked. “Nowadays you almost never see ekiben vendors rushing along the platform from car to car. Only at remote provincial stations does that affecting spectacle, that vestige of a vanished past, persist. Whenever I see it, I am overcome with nostalgia and buy one,” laments Matsumoto (ibid). However, this change of operations opened the door for ekiben kiosks to pop up in almost every station—urban or rural, busy or empty—in Japan. Noguchi writes that the extensive high-speed railway system has lead the consumption of ekiben from about 2 million boxes per week in the late 1970s to over 1,600 available varieties and a consumption rate of 12 million boxes daily by the mid-1980s (318).

Proof of popularity can be seen in ekiben festivals, events hosted by department stores and private train corporations that “improved accessibility to ekiben from different regions, opened new distribution channels, as well as re-confirming and celebrating regional identities” (Hashimoto and Telfer ibid). The first Ekiben Festival occurred at Osaka’s Takashimaya Deparment Store in 1953; about 10 years later, Keio Department Store in Tokyo held a festival in conjunction with the Japan National Railway (JNR). In 2003, Keio’s annual fair sold 283,726 ekiben of 160 in under two weeks; a sticky rice-stuffed squid ekiben from Hokkaido’s Mori Station sold 56,102 units alone (Hani 2003). Other department stores, like Tsuruya or Hanshin, expanded the festival model with live demonstrations and tables featuring over 300 styles of ekiben come 2017.

Most railway lines embrace ekiben’s impact on encouraging a uniquely Japanese form of train travel. In 2012, Japan Railway East (JRE) launched the Ekiben Grand Prix to market both regional ekiben and the 30th and 15th anniversaries of the Joetsu and Nagano shinkansen lines, respectively (Nippon.com 2024; Figure 2.3). At the event—now a series that occurs every autumn—participants were encouraged to try 23 types of ekiben from cities positioned along the two lines and vote on their favorites. Each box highlighted the unique agriculture and food trends of cities accessible by vast rail networks (which ties into my thesis and the subject of the concluding section Terroir on the Tracks). The first-ever ekiben to win the grand prix was Niigata-based Hotel Heimat’s tara meshi (soy sauce-cooked cod) bento with local-grown koshihikari rice (Figure 2.4). Other winners include tori-meshi (chicken rice), wine no meshi (snack bites that pair well with wine), and a hinai chicken and smoked daikon box inspired by the faithful dog Hachiko. “With ekiben being the theme of these events, the meaning and function of the ‘takeout boxed lunch’ had evolved considerably” (ibid).

Is Ekiben Fast Food?

Before I get into the nitty gritty of breaking down an ekiben’s contents and culture (and what that means historically), does the aforementioned capitalization and romanticization conflict with the regionality and pride of ingredients? Not necessarily. “Modern Japanese think of travel ekiben in close connection with good eating. Travelers sharing the distinctive flavor of local cusine fosters a sense of togetherness,” explains Noguchi (319). We cannot forget that ekiben is a culinary hybrid of Japan’s most distinct and touted qualities: modernity and traditionalism. Each box contains seasonal, place-based ingredients that are handcrafted into tasty, nicely presented dishes, but they are 1) born out of convenience, 2) directly correlated with travel, and 3) still considered “fast food” by Japanese citizens. In any scholarly research, we must remember that the western or touristic concept of ekiben, and fast food in general, can obscure our analyses.

While American fast-food services provide convenience with “uniformity and consistency covering the setting, architecture, food, ambiance, acts, and utterances,” ekiben—though still made with an air of convenience—ensure a “penchant for the aesthetic as well as the practical” (Noguchi 317 and 328; Hashimoto and Telfer 110). Here, efficiency is not compromised with quality, flavor, questionable factory conditions, “empty calories,” or homogeneity. Noguchi believes culinary convenience is a necessary, but not sufficient condition to explain the popularity of ekiben—cultural consonance also underlies its wide acceptance (318). Ekiben are at the crossroads of a “new age of speed in travel and the venerated past,” as they highlight both “natural time and mechanical time” of Japanese surroundings (ibid 328).