食の外部化が進む中、近年手づくり弁当が注目されている。「キャラ弁」と呼ばれるアート性の高い弁当や、弁当作りを楽しむ「弁当男子」の登場、子ども自らが作った弁当を持参する「弁当の日」の普及は、従来の、空腹を満たし栄養補給のための携帯食とは目的も機能も異なる現象である。 　弁当関連の書籍やインターネット上の情報、弁当箱の種類、弁当専用の食材も増えた。 　かつて「腰弁」と揶揄された手作り弁当は、自己表現の手段、趣味、娯楽的要素を持ち、さらに教育的効果も期待される存在になった。一昼食用の携帯食が、これほど多岐に渡る機能を有するに至った現象は「新弁当文化の時代」の到来と見ることができよう。 　本研究は、現代の手づくり弁当に関する情報を整理し、そのブームの背景や今後の課題について様々 な角度から考察する。

The tendency of dining out is now increasing among Japanese, but homemade bento (lunch box) has received a lot of attention. Recent interesting phenomena, the occurrence of excessively decorated bento which is called "Character Bento (Chara-ben)", the appearance of males collectively referred as "Bento Danshi" who enjoy the daily preparation of his own bento and the disperse of "Bento's day" as a special event in which school boys and girls arrange their lunch boxes and bring them to their schools, are distinguished from hitherto known traditional function of bento as portable ration or handy food. Thus, books, web-sites, kinds of lunch boxes and food materials related to homemade bento increased rapidly. Homemade bento has now diversified from traditional handy lunch food to new means of self-expression, attractive hobby, highbrow entertainment and educational tool. Such a diversification in functions of bento indicates a beginning of the era of New Bento Culture. The present study was conducted to disclose the background and the perspective of this new culture, based on analyses of various information related to homemade bento.

5

KJ00006981219

研究論文