【Reading】かべす

【English Name】Kabesu

"Kabesu" is a coined word combining the first sounds of kashi (sweets, ka), bento (boxed lunch, be), and sushi (su), used at theater playhouses from the Edo period through the Taisho era. When watching kabuki, mid-tier patrons who entered directly through the entrance (kido) without stopping at a theater teahouse are said to have had the custom of ordering only these three items during the performance.

Such patrons were called "kabesu customers" and were distinguished from patrons in the better seats. Eventually the term also came to be used as an expression mocking frugal or stingy customers. The expression "the usual kabesu" (Kabesu no o-kimari) even appears in the kabuki play "Tsukibai Kaoru Oborozuki," suggesting it was a word rooted in the theater culture of the time.

This term, born in the theater, is said to have later spread as jargon in the geisha quarters (karyukai) as well. The fact that sushi stood alongside sweets and boxed lunches as a standard food at Edo theater outings shows that sushi was already widely enjoyed by ordinary people as a between-meal snack.