Kamameshi - Kamameshi

Originally, it meant that rice cooked in a pot was taken directly from the pot and eaten without being transferred to a rice bin, but the word kamameshi has two meanings, as it is also used for ekiben (train station lunches) served in small pot-shaped containers. Cooking rice in a pot generally started after the Meiji period, and rice was cooked in a large pot for communal meals and school lunches. Thus, the meaning that people who ate rice from the same pot felt a sense of closeness to each other came to mean people who worked in the same workplace. In the ruins immediately after the Great Kanto Earthquake (1923), many people ate rice cooked in a makeshift pot directly from the pot or by transferring it to a bowl. Taking a hint from this, it soon came to be called kamameshi, which refers to cooking rice in a small pot for one person and putting various unusual ingredients in it. Companies that specialized in or sold this method were established, and later, specialized cookers that could cook many kamameshi at once were also made. Additionally, ceramic kettle-shaped containers packed with various types of cooked rice are commercially available all over the country.

[Tetsunosuke Tada]

Source: Shogakukan Encyclopedia Nipponica About Encyclopedia Nipponica Information | Legend

本来は、釜で炊いた飯を飯櫃(めしびつ)などに移さず、直接釜から取り出して食べるのをいうが、小さい釜型容器に盛り込んだ駅弁などを釜飯と称するように、釜飯の語意は二義ある。一般に釜で飯を炊くようになったのは明治以降で、共同生活の食事や給食などは大釜で飯を炊いた。そこで、同じ釜の飯を食べた仲間はお互いに親近感がある意が転じて、同じ職場で働いた者の意にも用いる。関東大震災（1923）直後の焼け跡で、ありあわせの釜で炊いた飯を、釜からじかに、または器に移して食べた人が多かった。これにヒントを得て、まもなく1人前用の小さい釜を用意して種々の変わった具を入れて炊くのを釜飯と称するようになった。それを専門または売り物にする業者ができ、その後、釜飯を一度に数多く炊く専用の炊事器もできている。また、陶器の釜型容器に種々の炊き込みご飯を詰めての市販品は、全国各地でみられる。

［多田鉄之助］

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