Gegege No Kitaro Don / ゲゲゲの鬼太郎丼

Gegege No Kitaro Don
ゲゲゲの鬼太郎丼

(Japanese follows. / 日本語は以下へ続く。)

When I went back to Japan and was waiting a flight back to my hometown at Haneda airport, I decided to buy some "Sora Ben (空弁)."
Sora Ben is a coined word of Sora (空港, ku-ko-, airport) and Ben (弁当, bento, lunchbox) and it means "lunchbox sold at airport" while "Eki Ben (駅弁)" is a lunchbox at rail stations.
* Sora is one of the ways to read the kanji "空."

These years, many airports and rail stations have their special Sora Ben, collaborating with famous restaurants, producing a limited quantity per day, having their local specialties and etc.
At Haneda airport, there're various kinds of Sora Ben and I found "Gegege No Kitaro Don" version and it's the last one on the shelf.

Gegege No Kitaro (ゲゲゲの鬼太郎) is a manga series created by Shigeru Mizuki.
The main character is "Kitaro" and he's from a yo-kai (folklore) tribe who has a strong sense of justice and he's fighting with bad yo-kai to create a peaceful world where yo-kai and human can live together.
I had no idea till now, but the reason the title "Gegege" was born is because when the creator was young, he couldn't pronounce hie name (Shigeru) correctly and said it "Gegeru" and "Gege" and he added another "Ge," and this is how "Gegege" was put out.

As the photo shown above, this Sora Ben comes with a bowl.

Don (丼) is a china bowl and can be used in food menus meaning a bowl of rice topped with side dishes.

On this card, it says the bowl is Arita porcelain (also known as Imari porcelain) with yo-kai illustrations.

On the front, there's Kitaro with his mouth wide open and there's Medama Oyaji (目玉おやじ, Eyeball Father) who is Kitaro's father.

He's once a mummy and died from a disease but was reborn as an eyeball since he's very worried about his son, Kitaro.

This is Kitaro's blue shirt.

This side is his hair.

The other 2 sides were yellow and black stripes like his vest.

"Kitaro's hometown, Tottori prefecture."

There's a paper pouch of chopsticks with the manufacturer's name.

The bento was covered with a plastic lid.

The main ingredients on the top is "Shigureni (時雨煮, しぐれ煮)" which is seafood or meat cooked in soy sauce and mirin (sugar and sake mixture) with ginger.
And they used Tottori beef, beef from Tottori prefecture where the creator grew up.

This is Megama Oyaji made with Japanese plum paste filled in a fish sausage.

Besides seasoned beef with white sesame seeds, there're sliced burdocks, julienned strips of thin omelette, cucumber and ginger pickles, a slice of carrot shaped in Japanese maple and a green Japanese maple is a plastic sheet often seen in bento and sushi.

The beef was well seasoned and had sweet and salty flavor, and it went well with white rice underneath.
The bowl was surprisingly deep and I felt like 2/3 of the bowl was rice, and I thought the ratio of the rice and the toppings was a bit off.

At the bottom of the bowl, there're a lying "Neko Musume (猫娘, Cat Girl)" jumping Medama Oyaji.

The reason the outside is plain white is Medama Oyaji takes a bath in a plain white bowl, according to the HP.

Gegege No Kitaro Don: 1,112 JPY (before tax)


日本に帰った時、羽田から実家へ戻る飛行機を待っている間に空弁を買うことにした。
空弁（そらべん）は「空港で販売している弁当」を意味する造語で、鉄道駅で販売される
駅弁と同じように、近年は有名レストランとコラボ、数量限定、地元の特産物を入れる等
種類が様々ある。
羽田空港には沢山の種類の空弁があり、「ゲゲゲの鬼太郎丼」が1つだけ残っているのを
見つけた。

「ゲゲゲの鬼太郎」は水木しげる氏による漫画で、正義感の強い妖怪族の鬼太郎が妖怪と
人間が共存できる平和な世界を作るため、悪い妖怪と戦う物語。
調べて初めて知ったのだけれど、題名の由来は作者が幼い頃に自分の名前を「しげる」と
言えずに「ゲゲル」「ゲゲ」と言ったことから、ゲをもう1つを足したことによるらしい。

陳列棚に見本があるように、妖怪のイラスト入り有田焼の器が付いてくる。
箱の表には大きな口を開けた鬼太郎がいて、口の中には目玉おやじが入っていた。
目玉おやじはミイラ男の姿をしていて、一度は病気で亡くなったものの鬼太郎が心配で
目玉の姿で蘇った。
箱の上下には鬼太郎の青いシャツと髪が描かれていて、その他の2面にはちゃんちゃんこの
黄と黒の縞模様がデザインされていて「鬼太郎のふるさと 鳥取県」と書かれていた。

使い捨ての割り箸が入った袋には「アベ鳥取堂」と製造者名が載っていた。

丼のメイン具材は作者が育った鳥取県の鳥取牛を使った時雨煮で、ちくわに梅肉が入った
「目玉おやじ」も乗っていた。
白ゴマがかかった味付け牛肉に加え、ゴボウの薄切り、錦糸卵、柴漬け、甘酢ショウガ、
紅葉型のニンジン、緑のプラスチックで作られた紅葉型のバランが入っていた。
牛時雨煮は甘塩っぱい味がしっかり染み込み、下に入っていた白米とよく合っていた。
器は意外と深く3分の2ほどが白米だったので、ご飯と具材のバランスが少し悪いように
感じた。

容器の底には、寝そべっている猫娘と飛び跳ねている目玉おやじが描かれていた。
目玉おやじのお椀のお風呂のように、素朴な味わいを出すため外側は無地の白だとHPに
記載されていた。

ゲゲゲの鬼太郎丼： 1,112円（税抜）