Hokai

There is a traditional wooden container called a hokai, usually written 外居 or 行器. It was used to transport food when traveling, like a modern bento box, but it was larger, rounded and barrel-like, similar to the bamboo steamers used in many parts of Asia to make buns or dumplings.

The hokai was originally a ritual vessel. Bedecked with a sakaki branch and gohei streamers, it might contain a sacred presence. Its prototype was a dish of simple unglazed earthenware known as kawarake. In the hills surrounding Kyoto there are a number of lookout points from which tossing small plates of this type is a traditional amusement. This, too, has ritual origins.

The hokai as ritual vessel was not for placing something inside, but rather for inviting something to enter─a receptacle for a revelation or some other thing deserving attention─that is to say, for powerful information. But if you gave it some kind of stimulus, it might share that power with you. So people began putting their precious food in it, which became a common practice. But in fact it was also fine to put nothing in it. Why? Because it contained sacred time. The hokai was portable. In theory, you could carry it anywhere. It was like a magic box from which one could always receive energy─a mobile shrine or portable sacred space (himorogi).