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Don’t fall down an Edo-era bento box wormhole.
Don’t fall down an Edo-era bento box wormhole.
Don’t fall down an Edo-era bento box wormhole.
Don’t fall down an Edo-era bento box wormhole.
Don’t—
https://japanobjects.com/features/bento-box
#novelresearch
Don’t fall down an Edo-era bento box wormhole.
Don’t fall down an Edo-era bento box wormhole.
Don’t fall down an Edo-era bento box wormhole.
Don’t—
https://japanobjects.com/features/bento-box
#novelresearch
CAN YOU BLAME ME THOUGH JUST LOOK AT THIS! 18TH CENTURY! WOOD AND LACQUER!!
https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/58fd82dbbf629ab224f81b68/1537342088478-AYD8G9WLCQ1YY2VN95BF/ke17ZwdGBToddI8pDm48kK6xQKGD9tHZJt3N0T2sm_wUqsxRUqqbr1mOJYKfIPR7LoDQ9mXPOjoJoqy81S2I8N_N4V1vUb5AoIIIbLZhVYxCRW4BPu10St3TBAUQYVKcLUyxEhW5TrfdnZKrXzDAD4SaBxIbSQWXWzwQ_5W8ZhdyQn0KDvBq_eDYjIF7LHdO/Gold-Bento.jpg?format=2500w
https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/58fd82dbbf629ab224f81b68/1537342088478-AYD8G9WLCQ1YY2VN95BF/ke17ZwdGBToddI8pDm48kK6xQKGD9tHZJt3N0T2sm_wUqsxRUqqbr1mOJYKfIPR7LoDQ9mXPOjoJoqy81S2I8N_N4V1vUb5AoIIIbLZhVYxCRW4BPu10St3TBAUQYVKcLUyxEhW5TrfdnZKrXzDAD4SaBxIbSQWXWzwQ_5W8ZhdyQn0KDvBq_eDYjIF7LHdO/Gold-Bento.jpg?format=2500w
Which of course leads me to this: Urushi: All you need to know about Japanese lacquer:
https://japanobjects.com/features/guide-to-masterpieces-of-japanese-lacquer
SO. PRETTY.
https://japanobjects.com/features/guide-to-masterpieces-of-japanese-lacquer
SO. PRETTY.
Oh man: see what it takes to make the stuff! The lacquer comes from a tree similar to poison oak & the people who gather it have to build up immunity. The wood is shaped & then painted & polished many many times before decoration (14:27 min):
This video follows the process too but has a bit more about harvesting the sap & how lacquer is also used in Japanese architecture & other decorations, not just crockery (15:27 min):
This #novelresearch thread was brought to you by the writing I was trying to do this morning.
(Thankful I managed to fit in about four hours. David Lynch once said, “If you want to get one hour of good painting in, you have to have four hours of uninterrupted time.”
https://www.goodreads.com/work/quotes/1120870
Applies to writing too, IMHO.)
https://www.goodreads.com/work/quotes/1120870
Applies to writing too, IMHO.)
Anyway, I am finding as I’m writing this that I tend to get tripped up by little details. In this scene, we’re introduced to a new character who has brought the month’s rice allocation up to another character, meeting him for breakfast.
Which then led me to think, “What did they keep rice in?”
You’d think that would be an easy question to answer, but noooo …
I eventually decided they’d put it in an ohitsu—which is normally for cooked rice, but why not uncooked rice: https://japan-design.imazy.net/en/crafts/azmaya/wooden-rice-bucket-azmaya/
You’d think that would be an easy question to answer, but noooo …
I eventually decided they’d put it in an ohitsu—which is normally for cooked rice, but why not uncooked rice: https://japan-design.imazy.net/en/crafts/azmaya/wooden-rice-bucket-azmaya/
What to cook the rice porridge in, though?
I wanted it to be one of those cast iron pots that normally hang on a hook over the square hearth in the floor (irori) like this:
https://i.pinimg.com/originals/94/2e/c5/942ec56299754782c7e81147bb0ec21f.jpg
I wanted it to be one of those cast iron pots that normally hang on a hook over the square hearth in the floor (irori) like this:
https://i.pinimg.com/originals/94/2e/c5/942ec56299754782c7e81147bb0ec21f.jpg
I couldn’t work out what they’re called, though. I thought it was “nabe” (which does mean "cooking pot”, I think), but Googling that usually gives you the sort of food made in the pot: nabemono:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nabemono
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nabemono
I did find this interesting article about Nambu ironware & the history of cast iron in the 17th century: https://www.tokyoweekender.com/2020/06/iwate-nambu-ironware/
But please note: the iron nabe is different to the earthenware donabe:
https://www.japantimes.co.jp/life/2017/10/21/food/donabe-hardy-pot-japanese-cooks-swear/#.XxZ1F_gzYqw
Those usually don’t hang from the hooks!
https://www.japantimes.co.jp/life/2017/10/21/food/donabe-hardy-pot-japanese-cooks-swear/#.XxZ1F_gzYqw
Those usually don’t hang from the hooks!
Second problem: what are they going to use to eat the porridge? The character who is hosting is poor; he used to be a thief. He has no income. He’s a seer now (well, seer-in-training), but he still has virtually nothing.
Then I came up with the idea of one of the other characters—also a seer & fellow student—giving him a gift—a graduation present when they both finished the equivalent of high school.
Which, of course, sent me down the lacquerware wormhole.
Which, of course, sent me down the lacquerware wormhole.
And I realised, “Oh, this is PERFECT!” because her speciality is plants. So she would have had a hand in making the lacquerware—extracting the sap from the trees—shaping the little bowls & chopsticks (though she probably would have passed them onto someone else to paint & polish)
So he would treasure them because he knows the efforts she would have gone to.
In addition, he appreciates the gift because he knew she knew he would need them for such an occasion as this—having guests & playing host for the first time.
In addition, he appreciates the gift because he knew she knew he would need them for such an occasion as this—having guests & playing host for the first time.
But!
Originally I thought she would have given him four. Then I realised what an idiot I am: OF COURSE SHE WOULDN’T!
Originally I thought she would have given him four. Then I realised what an idiot I am: OF COURSE SHE WOULDN’T!
Why? Because four is associated with death because the word sounds like the word for death in Japanese:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Japanese_superstitions
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Japanese_superstitions
(I had thought, remembering how my mother always refuses to stay in hotel rooms bearing the number 4, that this was only a Chinese thing, but no …)
So yes: she gave him FIVE bowls with matching chopsticks, not four. (Because two & three wouldn’t have been enough.)
This is why it takes me such a stupidly long time to write anything: I have to get the details right first before the scene comes together.
