The Historical Consumer

Transcription

1 The Historical Consumer

2

3 The Historical Consumer Consumption and Everyday Life in Japan, Edited by Penelope Francks Honorary Lecturer in Japanese Studies, University of Leeds, UK and Janet Hunter Saji Professor of Japanese Economic History, London School of Economics and Political Science, UK Palgrave macmillan

4 Selection and Editorial Matter Penelope Francks and Janet Hunter 2012 Individual Chapters the contributors 2012 Softcover reprint of the hardcover 1st edition All rights reserved. No reproduction, copy or transmission of this publication may be made without written permission. No portion of this publication may be reproduced, copied or transmitted save with written permission or in accordance with the provisions of the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988, or under the terms of any licence permitting limited copying issued by the Copyright Licensing Agency, Saffron House, 6 10 Kirby Street, London EC1N 8TS. Any person who does any unauthorized act in relation to this publication may be liable to criminal prosecution and civil claims for damages. The authors have asserted their rights to be identified as the authors of this work in accordance with the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act First published 2012 by PALGRAVE MACMILLAN Palgrave Macmillan in the UK is an imprint of Macmillan Publishers Limited, registered in England, company number , of Houndmills, Basingstoke, Hampshire RG21 6XS. Palgrave Macmillan in the US is a division of St Martin s Press LLC, 175 Fifth Avenue, New York, NY Palgrave Macmillan is the global academic imprint of the above companies and has companies and representatives throughout the world. Palgrave and Macmillan are registered trademarks in the United States, the United Kingdom, Europe and other countries. ISBN ISBN (ebook) DOI / This book is printed on paper suitable for recycling and made from fully managed and sustained forest sources. Logging, pulping and manufacturing processes are expected to conform to the environmental regulations of the country of origin. A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library. A catalog record for this book is available from the Library of Congress

5 Contents List of Tables List of Illustrations Acknowledgements List of Contributors Note on Transliteration vii ix xi xii xiii 1 Introduction: Japan s Consumption History in Comparative Perspective 1 Penelope Francks and Janet Hunter Part I Gender, the Household and Consumption 2 The Role of Housework in Everyday Life: Another Aspect of Consumption in Modern Japan 27 Masayuki Tanimoto 3 Like Bamboo Shoots after the Rain: The Growth of a Nation of Dressmakers and Consumers 56 Andrew Gordon 4 Building up Steam as Consumers: Women, Rice Cookers and the Consumption of Everyday Household Goods in Japan 79 Helen Macnaughtan Part II Tradition, Modernity and the Growth of Consumption 5 Japanese Modernisation and the Changing Everyday Life of the Consumer: Evidence from Household Accounts 107 Satoru Nakanishi and Tomoko Futaya 6 Sweetness and Empire: Sugar Consumption in Imperial Japan 127 Barak Kushner v

6 vi Contents 7 Kimono Fashion: The Consumer and the Growth of the Textile Industry in Pre-War Japan 151 Penelope Francks 8 Reviving Tradition: Patients and the Shaping of Japan s Traditional Medicines Industry 176 Maki Umemura Part III Spaces and Pathways of Consumption 9 Getting on a Train: Railway Passengers and the Growth of Train Travel in Meiji Japan 207 Naofumi Nakamura 10 People and Post Offices: Consumption and Postal Services in Japan from the 1870s to the 1970s 235 Janet Hunter 11 Mail-Order Retailing in Pre-War Japan: A Pathway of Consumption Before the Emergence of the Mass Market 259 Isamu Mitsuzono 12 From Corporate Playground to Family Resort: Golf as Commodity in Post-War Japan 284 Angus Lockyer 13 History and the Study of Consumerism: A Historian of the West Looks to Japan 306 Beverly Lemire Index 325

7 Tables 2.1 Allocation of labour and housework within a farming household in Tottori Prefecture, Average housework patterns across 44 farming households Attributes of household members engaged in housework Descriptive statistics of farming households in Economic Survey of Farming Households, 1929 and Determinants of housework hours Number of domestic servants per 100 households, Family composition by employment status, Tokyo City, Domestic servants by industry and age, Number of domestic servants per 1,000 persons, Japan and the UK Food expenditure, X family Clothing expenditure, X family Medical expenditure, X family Educational expenditure, X family Food expenditure, K family Clothing expenditure, K family Medical expenditure, K family Educational expenditure, K family Textiles and fabric production in the domestic economy Popular uses of Kanpō medicine Most commonly prescribed Kanpō medicines Fare tables of Japanese railways Use of transport facilities by Nagae Junichi: 1891, 1892, and Transport fares paid by Nagae Junichi in 1891 and Modes of transport used by Noda Utarō in Yasukawa Keiichirō s places of lodging, Modes of transport used by Yasukawa Keiichirō, 1899 and vii

8 viii List of Tables 11.1 Number of COD parcels: various countries Ratio of mail-order sales to total retail sales Kyoto s share of the domestic market for green tea Golf courses and rounds played,

9 Illustrations Map 9.1 Fukuoka prefecture in Figures 2.1 Proportion of female workers engaged in 34 hours or less per week, Distribution of housework hours in various types of household, A housewife working with a domestic servant, c Number of domestic servants by GDP, Japan and the UK compared Newspaper sewing column Production of selected home appliances, Value of selected home appliances production, Production of electric rice cookers, 1970 and Development of the electric rice cooker by Toshiba, Toshiba advertising their first electric rice cooker, Toshiba selling their first electric rice cooker in a Japanese department store, c. 1955/ A sweet-seller in Meiji-period Tokyo Sweet-sellers in colonial Korea Young women displaying their finery on an inter-war high street Shopping for kimono textiles in an inter-war department store Number of Kanpō publications, Value of Kanpō medicine production, Mass produced, granulated extracts of a prescription Kanpō medicine, Shikunshitō Physicians using Kanpō medicines, Physicians using Kanpō medicines, The waiting room at Tokyo-Shiodome (Shinbashi) station, ix

10 x List of Illustrations 9.2 The Night Train by Akamatsu Rinsaku, Share of revenue from passenger traffic in total railway revenue Total passengers of Japanese railways, by class Trends in traffic on the Kyūshū Railway Seasonal changes in passenger and freight revenue of the Kyūshū Railway Seasonal change in passenger revenue of the Kyūshū Railway Cost of sending mail Number of post offices Number of third-class/special post offices, Tokyo post office window lobby Number of COD parcels, Cover of the Mitsukoshi mail-order catalogue, Mitsukoshi Times, September A page from the Mitsukoshi catalogue of September A three-storey driving range in Tokyo A golf club membership trader in downtown Kyoto The website of Golf Digest Online The front cover of Regina, a golf fashion magazine Tokugawa-period traders wearing iki-inspired kimono The sumo wrestler Musashino Monta wearing a fashionable kimono 318

11 Acknowledgements The project out of which this book arose was generously funded by a grant made jointly by the British Association for Japanese Studies and the Daiwa Anglo-Japanese Foundation. This made possible a workshop for contributors, held in London in July 2010, and we are grateful to all the contributors for their active and positive participation. In addition, Martin Dusinberre of the University of Newcastle and Christopher Gerteis of the School of Oriental and African Studies (SOAS) in London acted as discussants, and their contributions highlighted the interconnections among papers and greatly helped us to frame the introduction. The Department of Economic History at the London School of Economics (LSE) provided logistical support and our thanks go to Linda Sampson and Tracy Keefe for administrative support throughout. Michael Andrews gave valuable assistance with the organisation of the workshop and Steven Ivings with preparation of the final manuscript. Finally, thanks of course to Richard and Stephen for resolving computing crises, buying supplies and much else. xi

12 Contributors Penelope Francks Honorary Lecturer in Japanese Studies, University of Leeds; Research Associate, School of Oriental and African Studies, University of London Tomoko Futaya Part-time Lecturer, Nagoya Keizai University, Inuyama, Aichi, Japan Andrew Gordon Lee and Juliet Folger Fund Professor of History, Department of History, Harvard University Janet Hunter Saji Professor of Japanese Economic History, London School of Economics Barak Kushner University Senior Lecturer in Modern Japanese History, Faculty of Middle Eastern and Asian Studies, University of Cambridge Beverly Lemire Professor of History and Henry Marshall Tory Chair, Department of History and Classics and Department of Human Ecology, University of Alberta Angus Lockyer Lecturer in the History of Japan, Department of History, School of Oriental and African Studies, University of London Helen Macnaughtan Lecturer in International Business and Management (Japan), Department of Financial and Management Studies, School of Oriental and African Studies, University of London Isamu Mitsuzono JSPS Fellow, Graduate School of Humanities and Sociology, University of Tokyo Naofumi Nakamura Professor of Business History, Institute of Social Science, University of Tokyo Satoru Nakanishi Professor, Graduate School of Economics, Nagoya University Masayuki Tanimoto Professor of Economic History, Graduate School of Economics, University of Tokyo Maki Umemura Sasakawa Lecturer in Japanese Studies, Cardiff Business School, Cardiff University xii

13 Note on Transliteration Japanese names and words are romanised according to the modified Hepburn system. Long vowels are indicated by the use of macrons, which are omitted in the case of Tokyo, Osaka and Kyoto. Japanese names are given in line with the Japanese practice of family name preceding given name, with the exception of Japanese authors writing in English. xiii