earticle

영어

Ekiben(railway boxed meals), characteristic of its non-everydayness exemplifed by famous regional specialties and train travel, has developed itself in response to a change of times. This paper takes a general look at the history of ekiben, and then investigates ekiben under the period of wartime during which many of its distict features have emerged as evidence for its sociality and historicity. What this paper focuses on in particular ranges from changes appearing in the menu and packaging of ekiben to the way in which it responds to, and is receptive of, the situation in the then period and to the underlying historical backdrop behind it. Japan in wartime strictly controlled long-distance movement of civilians and food distribution, as the war situation deterioated. This led to the transformation of ekiben’s packaging design from a disinctive and diverse form, influenced mostly by regional specialties(i.e. gakegami), into a standardized form printed merely with wartime images and replacement menu: it was the peculiar time during which luxuriness and non-everydayness representative of ekiben’s original characteristics have been shadowed by the then gloomy everydays in wartime Japan. Meanwhile, ekiben producers were also assumed to have been able to supply gunben(military boxed meals) thanks to their maintaining their personal trustful relationship with railway authorities or by inventing their know-hows for mass-production of boxed meals. That ekiben has been unable to maintain its original local/regional and luxurious characteristics during the wartime can possibly be to do with the continuous production/invention of diverse forms of ekiben to date from the postwar period

일본어

名物郷土料理、鉄道旅行など非日常性を特徴とする駅弁は時代の変化に対応しながら発展してきた。本稿では駅弁の歩みを概観し、とりわけ特徴的な変化がみられた戦時体制下の駅弁を手掛かりに駅弁の社会性･時代性について考察した。駅弁のメニューやかけ紙にみられる変化から駅弁の時代状況の受け止め方やその背景について考察した。 戦況の悪化に伴い日本では民間人の長距離移動と食糧の流通に強い統制がかかった。それまでの地域特産物やデザイン性に富むかけ紙はなくなり、｢代用食｣メニューや戦時標語が並ぶ一色刷りのかけ紙に変わった。駅弁の特徴であった贅沢感や非日常性が戦争という暗鬱な日常に覆われた特殊な時代であった。一方、駅弁業者は鉄道当局との信頼関係や大量の弁当を調製するノーハウ―を生かして｢軍弁｣の提供を担ったと考えられる。戦時体制下の駅弁は、駅弁特有の地域色や贅沢感は保持することはできなかったものの、戦後から今日にいたるまでの社会的変化に対応しながら多様な駅弁の調製を続ける蓄積に繋がったといえよう。