Lunch Box

Dosirak is a portable container used to carry food. It was usually used to carry packed lunches. When lunch was sent to workers in fields and rice paddies, it was carried on a small table containing boiled rice, side dishes, liquor and snacks. Later, lunch boxes consisting of stacked boxes within a single container were developed in order to easily carry multiple dishes at once. Dosirak may simply contain and carry boiled rice and side dishes, and originated from a term referring to lunch in Korean. These containers were usually made of osier, bamboo strips, fallen leaves, and kudzu vines. Among the upper class, however, porcelain lunch boxes were also used. Some farming families used wicker baskets as a lunch boxes. There are also wooden lunch boxes consisting of two or three boxes made of thin wooden panels that are fixed with wooden pieces on the outside of the boxes. In porcelain containers, boxes were stacked up before being tied with strings on both sides.