Poetic Japanese LunchBox

{Essay Report of Article
Kenji EKUAN. ‘Introduction: Joys of the Lunchbox’
pp 1-7; from The Aesthetics of the Japanese Lunchbox. Cambridge, Mass.: MIT Press. 1998.}

“Good mind save; bad mind kill.” _*1]

—Kenji EKUAN

In fact, Kenji’s article is the introduction of the book “The Aesthetics of the Japanese Lunchbox”. To be frank, this article is just a rough summary of all the concepts and it also guides us to read this book further.

Kenji reads the Japanese lunchbox as both object and metaphor. He finds the traditional Japanese lunchbox a touchstone for discovering the country’s landscape, culture, and aesthetic sensibilities. It seems that Kenji tells us lots, but actually, there are two main concepts passing through the whole article. They are the Japanese visual culture and the many-talented national character. These are also what this article and this book impressed me. I would like to discuss further in this report.