Editing Bento (section)

== Scholarship ==
Many scholars have written about the bento since the late 20th century. The foundation of their approach is based on the idea that food can carry many different meanings.<ref name=":1">{{Cite journal |last=Noguchi |first=Paul H. |date=1994 |title=Savor Slowly: Ekiben: The Fast Food of High-Speed Japan |url=http://dx.doi.org/10.2307/3773902 |journal=Ethnology |volume=33 |issue=4 |pages=317–330 |doi=10.2307/3773902 |issn=0014-1828 |jstor=3773902}}</ref>

In the 1970s, [[Chie Nakane]] used ekiben as a metaphor for group organization in Japan. By comparing this variant of bento to groups in Japan, she considered how different organizations in Japanese society often include identical components so as not to depend on any other groups for their success.<ref name=":1" /> In 1984, Ŏ-ryŏng Yi used bento to present tendencies towards [[reductionism]] in Japanese culture; {{What|date=January 2025|text=all the food in a Japanese-style lunch box is only able to be reduced to fit in a little box}} due to it being Japanese food, as it naturally lends itself to being tightly packed.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Yi |first=Ŏ-ryŏng |url=https://www.worldcat.org/oclc/10723642 |title=Smaller is better : Japan's mastery of the miniature |date=1984 |publisher=Kodansha International |isbn=0-87011-654-1 |edition=1st English |location=Tokyo |oclc=10723642}}</ref> [[Roland Barthes]], on the other hand, used a symbolic approach to describe the lack of a [[centrepiece]] in Japanese food. He described the distinct contents of a bento box as a multitude of fragments or ornaments that are combined to beautify each other.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Barthes |first=Roland |url=https://www.worldcat.org/oclc/8587789 |title=Empire of signs |date=1982 |others=Howard, Richard |isbn=0-8090-4222-3 |edition=First American |location=New York |oclc=8587789}}</ref> Joseph Jay Tobin in 1992 discussed how the meticulous assembly of individual bento boxes has been aided by the reinterpretation of Western goods, practices, and ideas through a process he classified as domestication.<ref>{{Cite book |author=Tobin, Joseph Jay |url=https://www.worldcat.org/oclc/25048328 |title=Re-made in Japan : everyday life and consumer taste in a changing society |date=1992 |publisher=Yale University Press |isbn=0-300-05205-7 |location=New Haven |oclc=25048328}}</ref>