--- title: "What is ekiben? Japan's railway bento and Tōge no Kamameshi" description: "Ekiben are boxed meals sold at Japan's railway stations. Learn where they are said to have begun in 1885, why every region has its own, and how Tōge no Kamameshi fits in." url: https://kama-meshi.com/en/articles/what-is-ekiben language: en published: 2026-11-11 category: "Food and culture › Ekiben" tags: ["Ekiben", "Kamameshi"] author: "Oginoya Editorial Team" publisher: "Oginoya Co., Ltd." translations: zh-TW: https://kama-meshi.com/zh-tw/articles/what-is-ekiben ko: https://kama-meshi.com/ko/articles/what-is-ekiben zh-CN: https://kama-meshi.com/zh-cn/articles/what-is-ekiben zh-HK: https://kama-meshi.com/zh-hk/articles/what-is-ekiben th: https://kama-meshi.com/th/articles/what-is-ekiben de: https://kama-meshi.com/de/articles/what-is-ekiben fr: https://kama-meshi.com/fr/articles/what-is-ekiben es: https://kama-meshi.com/es/articles/what-is-ekiben --- # What is ekiben? Japan's railway bento and Tōge no Kamameshi ![Tōge no Kamameshi in its clay pot, with a small container of pickles and Oginoya's chopstick sleeve](https://kama-meshi.com/_astro/toge-no-kamameshi-train-2016.BnBsP0vQ_9moL7.webp) *Ekiben* are the boxed meals sold to travelers at Japan's railway stations and on board its trains. The word is short for *eki-uri bentō*, "bento sold at the station." What sets them apart from other bento is that they change from place to place: each one is built around the food of its own region, so a train journey can include a meal from the land outside the window. Among the best known is one that comes in a clay pot: Tōge no Kamameshi, which Oginoya has sold since 1958. ## It began with two rice balls The first ekiben is usually said to have been sold at Utsunomiya Station in 1885. A local inn, Shirokiya, wrapped two rice balls and some pickled daikon radish in a bamboo sheath and offered them to passengers. Some accounts point to earlier sales, at Kobe Station in 1878 or Ueno Station in 1883, but Utsunomiya is the customary starting point. Three years later, Himeji Station sold something closer to a full meal: salt-grilled sea bream, *datemaki* (a sweet rolled omelet), fish cake and a dashi-flavored omelet, packed beside white rice sprinkled with black sesame. This is the *makunouchi* style, rice with an assortment of small dishes. As long-distance rail travel became common in the 1890s, ekiben were sold in earnest at major stations and at stations where trains made long stops. Oginoya is as old as that first ekiben. In 1885, the year Yokokawa Station opened on the Shin-etsu Main Line, [Oginoya set up business inside the station](https://kama-meshi.com/en/articles/oginoya-history) and sold *omusubi*, rice balls, to passengers. ## Local food, local containers Whenever the railway reached a new town, a local ekiben soon followed. Railways arrived in Japan before refrigerators did, so the meals were made with fresh ingredients from nearby. The containers came to speak for their regions as well. - **Masu no Sushi**, from Toyama, lays trout over rice, wraps it in bamboo leaves and sets it in a cedar box. - **Daruma Bento**, from Gunma, comes in a container shaped like a *daruma* doll, a symbol of the prefecture. Once the meal is finished, the container works as a coin bank. - **Hipparidako Meshi** comes from Nishi-Akashi in Hyogo Prefecture, a place known for octopus. Soy-seasoned rice topped with simmered octopus, conger eel and vegetables is served in a clay pot modeled on the pots used to catch octopus. - **Moo Taro Bento**, from Mie, has a cow-shaped container that plays music when the lid is lifted. ![An open red container shaped like a daruma doll, filled with rice, chicken and vegetables](https://kama-meshi.com/_astro/daruma-bento-2014.ChHHJuT3_Z186bpA.webp "Daruma Bento, 2014.") ![A brown ceramic pot with an octopus in relief, its mouth covered with paper](https://kama-meshi.com/_astro/hipparidako-meshi-2007.D6RjOGiU_Z1oMVe3.webp "Hipparidako Meshi in its octopus-pot container, 2007.") Some ekiben heat themselves. A beef tongue bento from Miyagi has a heating element in its base: pull the string, wait a few minutes, and the meal is hot. ## Where to buy one, and where to eat it Large stations have several shops selling ekiben from different regions, and Tokyo Station gathers them from all over Japan. Small stations stock their own local specialty. Eating on the Shinkansen and on express trains is entirely normal; short-distance local trains are not the place for a meal. ![A hand holding a red bento box of rice topped with crab, salmon roe and sea urchin, beside a window](https://kama-meshi.com/_astro/stock-1868030215.Cu9TIR7j_Z1iUVON.webp "A seafood bento with crab, salmon roe and sea urchin.") Ekiben also travel without the trains. Department stores have held ekiben fairs that bring together boxes from stations across the country, and Oginoya took Tōge no Kamameshi to one at Takashimaya in Yokohama in 1961. ## An ekiben in a clay pot Yokokawa was a small mountain station between Takasaki and Karuizawa. Few passengers got on or off there, and selling meals was a hard business. Takamizawa Mineji, who became Oginoya's fourth president in 1953, went out onto the platform every day and asked travelers what kind of bento they wanted. The usual ekiben at the time was a cold makunouchi. What travelers asked for was something warm and homelike that was also a pleasure to look at. The result was Tōge no Kamameshi, conceived in 1957 and put on sale at Yokokawa Station on February 1, 1958. It overturned what an ekiben was expected to be. It comes in an earthenware pot of [Mashiko ware](https://kama-meshi.com/en/articles/mashiko-ware). The pots are sterilized at high heat before they are filled, which also helps them hold their warmth. Inside, seasoned Koshihikari rice is topped with [nine ingredients](https://kama-meshi.com/en/articles/what-is-kamameshi): chicken, burdock root, shiitake, bamboo shoot, a quail egg, chestnut, apricot, green peas and red pickled ginger. Pickles come in a separate container. In October of its first year, Tōge no Kamameshi was loaded at Yokokawa Station for Emperor Shōwa, who was traveling to the National Sports Festival in Toyama. Sales were slow at first. Word of mouth among travelers and a piece in the magazine *Bungeishunjū* changed that. In 1967 a television drama modeled on Mineji, *Kamameshi Fūfu*, began its run, and the pot became known across Japan. By 1995 Oginoya had sold 100 million of them. The count has since passed 170 million. The pot is heavy, and customers said so. Oginoya now also sells Tōge no Kamameshi in a molded-pulp container made from materials such as sugarcane residue. It keeps the rounded shape of the ceramic pot, has a surface with the texture of *washi* paper, and holds the same meal. ![A white molded-pulp container shaped like the pot, with the name Oginoya molded into its lid](https://kama-meshi.com/_astro/oginoya-pulp-container.DMEO-9Qx_ZCDqVE.webp "The molded-pulp container.") ## References - [Japan National Tourism Organization: Experience Japan's Local Ekiben Culture](https://www.japan.travel/en/guide/experience-japans-local-ekiben-culture/) - [Kotobank: “Ekiben” (Japanese dictionaries and encyclopedias)](https://kotobank.jp/word/%E9%A7%85%E5%BC%81-444219) - [Kotobank: “Kamameshi” (Japanese dictionaries and encyclopedias)](https://kotobank.jp/word/%E9%87%9C%E9%A3%AF-46576) - [Norimono News: Edakubo Tatsuya, a 140-year history of ekiben (May 2026)](https://trafficnews.jp/post/671657) - [Oginoya: Company timeline](https://www.oginoya.co.jp/tougenokamameshi/history/) - [Oginoya: History (English)](https://www.oginoya.co.jp/en/tougenokamameshi/history/) - [Oginoya: The story behind Tōge no Kamameshi](https://www.oginoya.co.jp/tougenokamameshi/tanjouhiwa/) - [Oginoya: Tōge no Kamameshi (English)](https://www.oginoya.co.jp/en/tougenokamameshi/) - [Oginoya: Tōge no Kamameshi in the ceramic pot](https://www.oginoya.co.jp/bento/kamameshi/) - [Oginoya: Tōge no Kamameshi in the molded-pulp container](https://www.oginoya.co.jp/bento/kamameshi_eco/) - [Oginoya: About the containers](https://www.oginoya.co.jp/tougenokamameshi/kodawari/) - [Oginoya Tokyo: What is Tōge no Kamameshi?](https://oginoya.tokyo/reason/) Image credits (resized for display): - [pcs34560 / Wikimedia Commons](https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:T%C5%8Dge_no_Kamameshi_Oginoya_photo_by_Pcs34560_20160116_1311.jpg), Public domain, 2016 - [Qurren / Wikimedia Commons](https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Takaben_Daruma_Bento.jpg), [CC BY-SA 3.0](https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0), 2014 - [veroyama / Wikimedia Commons](https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Hippari-dako_meshi_crock_by_veroyama_in_Kobe_Meriken_Park,_Hyogo.jpg), [CC BY 2.0](https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0), 2007 - [Adobe Stock #1868030215](https://stock.adobe.com/1868030215) - [Oginoya](https://ec.oginoya.co.jp/pages/kamameshi_mashiko)