Abstract
Japanese consumer culture serves as background to the major changes to the ritual calendar which took place in postwar Japan. The chapter presents a brief overview of the main paths along which postwar Japanese consumer culture developed; it summarizes the socioeconomic conditions which led to its rise and underlie some of its salient characteristics. The evolution of shichigosan needs to be placed in the context of the modern ritual calendar. Important changes to the postwar Japanese ritual calendar are examined through case studies of traditional and newly introduced Japanese festivities and rituals presented in the specialist literature.
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- 1.
- 2.
To mention a few examples, in China examples of conspicuous consumption already existed back in the Ming period. See also Craig Clunas’ Superfluous Things: Material Culture and Social Status in Early Modern China in Trentmann 2004, 378.
- 3.
For a discussion of this scholarship and list of major works, see also Katarzyna Cwiertka’s Review of The Japanese Consumer: An Alternative Economic History of Modern Japan (review no. 1109) http://www.history.ac.uk/reviews/review/1108
- 4.
Francks’ work, The Japanese Consumer (2009a), gives a wide-ranging account of the historical development of consumption and examines the sociohistorical conditions that stood at the birth of consumer culture in Japan.
- 5.
In this regard, Trentmann notes that the formation of the consumer society in nineteenth-century Europe was typical to certain regions and cities, and it was hardly a general phenomenon. Consumption was increasing but it was still not a consumer society and individuals did not define themselves as ‘consumers’ (Trentmann 2004, 382–383).
- 6.
On the role of department stores in the social life of the Japanese, see, among others, the studies of Creighton 1992, Kerrie L. MacPherson (ed.) Asian Department Stores (1998), and Brian Moeran’s essay “The Birth of the Japanese Department Store” in MacPherson (ed.) (1998).
- 7.
See more on this in chapter ‘Business Sector, Media, and Religious Institutions’.
- 8.
The Japanese farmers still constituted 41 % of the population in 1940 (Gregory 1975).
- 9.
See also Minowa et al. 2011.
- 10.
For detailed data on real per capita consumption expenditure, see also Francks 2009a, Appendix Tables 2 and 4.
- 11.
On the value of possession of electric household devices (washing machine, television set), seen as an indicator of ‘modernity’ later in the 1960s, see also Vogel 1963.
- 12.
In 1958, Ezra Vogel, in his study of a Tokyo neighborhood, described the middle-class lifestyle as based on the life model personalized by sarariiman (salary man, i.e., white-collar employee of big companies) and his family (Vogel 1963).
- 13.
See also Chua Beng-Huat (ed.) Consumption in Asia: Lifestyles and Identities (London: Routledge, 2000), and Patricia Maclachlan and Frank Trentmann ‘Civilising Markets: Traditions of Consumer Politics in Twentieth-Century Britain, Japan, and the United States’ in Frank Trentmann and Mark Bevir (eds.) Markets in Historical Contexts: Ideas and Politics in the Modern World (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2004, pp. 170–201).
- 14.
Not only birth rate, but the number of marriages, too, is diminishing along with an increasing rate of divorce (Fuess 2004).
- 15.
Another, even more important factor, is the delayed marriage age, which brings about the postponing of childbirth. Consequently, there is less probability of giving birth to the desired number of offspring due to the correspondence between the age of women and their fertility levels (see also Yoshizumi 1995). In 2006, the average age for marriage was 30 years for men, and 28.2 years for women (Assman 2011, 167).
- 16.
The first McDonald’s opened in Ginza in 1971 and Tokyoites started to enjoy Sunday strolling in downtown (Watson 2006 in Minowa et al. 2011, 46).
- 17.
- 18.
‘Parasite singles’ is a term first used by Masahiro Yamada, Japanese sociologist, in 1997 to label young adults sharing homes with their parents without contributing financially to household expenses. Tran notes that Japan has the highest ratio in the world of single young adults living with their families (Tran 2006 in Collins 2011, 93).
- 19.
Studies in the edited volume by Haghirian (2011a) include detailed analysis of this particular consumer group and behavior.
- 20.
Merry White’s The Material Child: Coming of Age in Japan and America (1994) offers a cross-cultural study of Japanese and American teenagers and the particular consumption behavior patterns typical to the segment.
- 21.
Hentschel 2011. A most recent example is provided by the case of mobile Internet which is said to majorly contribute to the advancement of information society. Many campaigns are today launched via mobile phones in Japan.
- 22.
It has been argued that in Japan, consumption is an important instrument for creating and upholding social relationships. Social networks and communities are often developed by consuming together and by sharing consumer information (Skov and Moeran 1995a).
- 23.
Miller notes that there exists a contradiction entailed in the existing popular images of housewife, entailing, on the one hand, images associated with modesty and denigration and, on the other hand, critical views targeting their role as consumers (Miller 1995).
- 24.
See Haghirian’s study (2011c) for an analysis of this sector in Japan.
- 25.
In her analysis, Minowa applies the methodology of folk epistemology (theory of knowledge).
- 26.
Knowledge and belief underlying these attitudes are often tacit, or little conscious, also because they are contrasted by powerful forces in present-day society, such as pragmatism, materialism, disdain for institutionalized religions, or value placed on individualism (Minowa 2012). Minowa identifies the philosophical concept of ki as central for the persistence of some cultural practices in Japan, such as rituals. Ki, being the translation and adoption of the ancient Chinese philosophy qi or chi, was imported in Japan from China together with Chinese writing, Buddhism, Taoism, and yin-yang philosophy. It has various meanings in the Japanese language, such as spirit, mind, energy, breath, air, and others, indicating its diffusion as philosophical concept in the Japanese culture.
- 27.
- 28.
- 29.
In other words, a child born in November can turn two the following January according to the traditional age-counting method.
- 30.
- 31.
Also called nibun no ichi seijinshiki (2分1成人式、1/2 coming-of-age rite) or totose no iwai (十歳の祝い celebration of ten years of age). Source: http://www.news-postseven.com/archives/20141122_285283.html and www.totosenoiwai.jp. In 2012, the seventh of March has been registered as the Day of the Celebration of the Ten Years of Age, by the association for the diffusion and promotion of the celebration (Totose no iwai fukyū suishin kyōgikai十歳の祝い普及推進協議会). However, the day of the celebration is not settled on any particular day, even though it is quite common to hold the event in schools during the months of January, February, and November.
- 32.
It is also a common practice to make children write a thanksgiving letter to their parents.
- 33.
Source: http://www.news-postseven.com/archives/20141122_285283.html (article Sapio 2014 December, News Post Seven).
- 34.
See, for example, the texts of the website mentioned in Note 31 (www.totosenoiwai.jp).
- 35.
Among others, Studio Alice or Happily Studio. The proposed dress for the occasion of photographing, similarly to other rites of passage, is the Japanese-style dress.
- 36.
Yakudoshi comprises beliefs about certain ages in human life regarded as unlucky. Although there is no clear agreement about the ages, usually the twenty-fifth and forty-second year for men, and the nineteenth and thirty-third year for women are seen as critical. The year preceeding and following the concrete yakudoshi year is also believed to represent a risky period, even though to a lesser degree than the main year. It is thought that around these ages, one’s probability of encountering difficulties, troubles, or illness in everyday life increases. Therefore, special precautions need to be taken. These can be rituals to beg for divine protection. Among these rituals the purification rite is offered in most Shinto shrines (called yakubarai 厄祓い), or pilgrimages are carried out to distant and famous shrines. For a discussion of the phenomenon, see Taguchi 2008, 2015, in English see, for example, Edward Norbeck’s Yakudoshi: A Japanese Complex of Supernaturalistic Beliefs (1955) and Years of Calamity: Yakudoshi Observances in Urban Japan by David Lewis (1998).
- 37.
Kuizome used to mark the period when the baby started to take its first solid food, practically this indicates the weaning period. Today it is not necessarily associated with weaning even if the timing of the celebration may coincide with it.
- 38.
On the first birthday of the baby, usually marking the time when the baby starts to walk, a variety of divination practices were observed in an attempt to foretell the future of the child. For a variety of local customs connected to the traditional form of the ritual, see in English language Sofue 1965.
- 39.
The seasonal festivals here refer to the traditional Girls’ Festival—momo no sekku 桃の節句 or hina matsuri 雛祭り, and the Boys’ Festival—tango no sekku 端午の節句 or koinobori 鯉幟. The first time they are observed in the child’s life is called hatsusekku. Children on these occasions receive their first set of traditional items (hina dolls for girls, and samurai warrior arms for boys) that are put on display on the day of the festival. In the past, these were usually sent by maternal grandparents. On the cultural meaning and its role in the education of children of this practice, see Hendry 1986, in Japanese Ōtō 1968.
- 40.
Nenchū gyōji have roots in the Chinese ritual calendar where they used to be tightly connected to agricultural and religious festivals. Their introduction to Japan took place around the Nara (710–794) and Heian (794–1185) periods, initially adopted by the imperial court and later diffused to the rest of the society. In the course of the time, the observances acquired specific patterns and meaning under the influence of the Japanese belief systems (see Ishii 2009).
- 41.
Different categorizations of rituals are in use in the Japanese literature. For an overview, see Taguchi 2015.
- 42.
The lack of interest and the low number of studies carried out on the change of ritual culture in postwar Japan has been noted, among others, by Ishii (2009) and recently, by Taguchi (2015). Also, concerning life cycle rituals, Taguchi notices that studies on rituals related to ‘death’ (such as funeral practices and views on death) greatly outnumber those on life-related rituals (2015).
- 43.
The dichotomic concepts of hare and ke are widely applied in the interpretation of the cosmology of traditional agricultural communities in Japanese folklore studies (Akata 1979).
- 44.
In the course of the twentieth century, a wide range of ethnographic studies has been produced on the subject of nenjū gyōji. Among others, see Tarō Wakamori’s Nenchū gyōji (1957), Kunio Yanagita’s Nenchū gyōji oboegaki (1969), Tsuneichi Miyamoto’s Minkan reki (1970).
- 45.
The term ‘domesticated’ has been adopted by Joseph J. Tobin in his Re-Made in Japan. Everyday Life and Consumer Taste in a Changing Society (Tobin 1992).
- 46.
The Ie-system ( ie seido 家制度) was stated as the legal basic unit of society by the Meiji Civil Code in 1898. It was based on a feudal Confucian hierarchical family model where the male head held all authority over the other members of the household and where kin relations were not necessarily based on blood relations and could include wider kinship, too. The model lasted, at least legally, until the end of Second World War. In 1946, the new constitution abolished and replaced it with the nuclear family as the legal unit of the society, defined by the conjugal relationship and offspring. Although several authors point to the persistence of traditional structures and to the continuing relevance of the ideology linked to the ie system in rural areas (see, e.g. Hendry 1981, 1986, Kato 2013).
- 47.
According to Taguchi’s findings, not solely the belief, but the term ‘ujigami’ itself is known to few Japanese (2015).
- 48.
The decorations typical for this time, including Christmas tree and the figure of Santa Claus, remained more or less the same today.
- 49.
James H. Barnett: The American Christmas: A Study in National Culture (1954).
- 50.
Another word for the same phenomenon was Jimmu keiki (神武景気), lit. Jimmu prosperity. In a similar vein, the 1960s were also labeled as the ‘Rock-door prosperity’ (iwato keiki 岩戸景気), referring to the mythological story of the feast offered by the Japanese gods to Amaterasu Ōmikami, the Sun Goddess, to attract her attention and lure her out of the cave. The Three Imperial Treasures, the sword, the mirror, and the jewel of the Imperial regalia (sanshu no jingi 三種の神器) were instead used in the media as counterparts of the three consumer durables: car, refrigerator, and cooler. In other interpretations, the three items were television, washing machine, and refrigerator.
- 51.
On the Japanese Christmas, see also Brian Moeran and Lisa Skov’s ‘Cinderella Christmas: Kitsch, Consumerism, and Youth in Japan.’ in Unwrapping Christmas, ed. Daniel Miller (Oxford University Press, 1993, pp. 105–133); Junko Kimura ‘Kōchikushugi no shōhiron: kurisumasu shōhi wo tōshita purosesu bunseki’ (Consumption theory based on Constructionism: Analysis of process through the Christmas consumption) (2001); Junko Kimura and Russell W. Belk ‘Shōhi bunka no juyō katei no saikentō : Nihon no kurisumasu shōhi ni miru bunka no saiseisan. (The re-examination of the demand process of consumption culture: The reproduction of culture observed in the Christmas consumption in Japan) (2004); Junko Kimura and Russell W. Belk ‘Christmas in Japan: Globalization versus localization.’ Consumption, Markets and Culture. Vol. 8 (September) (2005).
- 52.
The latest trend is to spend Christmas day in a couple, with one’s boyfriend or girlfriend, explained also by the increasing individualization in society.
- 53.
Being familiar with the gift-giving etiquette is viewed as essential for being able to participate fully in the social life of Japan. On this theme, see also Chieko Minami (1997) Gifuto maketingu (Gift marketing) (1997), Yuko Minowa and Stephen J. Gould ‘Love my gift, love me or is it love me, love my gift: A study of the cultural construction of romantic gift giving among Japanese couples’ Advances in Consumer Research, Vol. 26 (1999), also Befu 1968, and Hendry 1993.
- 54.
Chūgen, today observed on July 15, is a celebration originally adopted from the Chinese ritual calendar with Buddhist origins. It is one of the so-called sangen (三元) occasions which mark the fifteenth of the first month (jōgen 上元), the seventh (中元), and tenth month (kagen下元). With time, the occasions became known and observed in Japan principally in the form of a gift-giving ritual, and the middle one, chūgen, became viewed as the mid-year gift-giving rite corresponding so to seibo, the end-of-year gift-giving occasion.
- 55.
During the 1950s–1960s, department stores, seeing in the celebration an occasion to exploit for gift sales, had a prime role in the popularization efforts of Valentine’s Day. Also, during this period, chocolate was not promoted as the main gift for the occasion, but several other items appeared in advertisements (Minowa et al. 2011). Ishii adds a second theory on the first introduction of the custom, that in 1958 the president of Mary’s Chocolate (メリーチョコレート) company allegedly misinterpreted the European custom and started to promulgate chocolate as a Valentine gift given by girls to boys (Ishii 2009, 48 referring to an Asahi article from 1988).
- 56.
See also Millie R. Creighton ‘“Sweet love” and women’s place: Valentine’s Day, Japan style.’ Journal of Popular Culture 27(3), 1–19 (1993).
- 57.
Another parallel development, though in the case of shichigosan with a later date, is the emergence on the market of Valentine gift items for pets. In the last decade, the media have reported on the growing popularity of shichigosan observance for pets in shrines. See, for example, reports in Nihon Keizai Shinbun 2013/11/9 or in Ichigaya Kezai Shinbun 2013/8/22.
- 58.
The prayers include the obi-iwai, a traditional observance performed in the fifth month of pregnancy for safe pregnancy and delivery (see also chapter ‘Shichigosan: The History of a Japanese Childhood Rite of Passage’ on this subject).
- 59.
For a short description of this traditional cosmology see also above (views on age and aging), and for a longer analysis of the subject, see chapter ‘Shichigosan: The History of a Japanese Childhood Rite of Passage’.
- 60.
Taguchi is here referring, in particular, to the work of Iwamoto (2008) on national rituals.
- 61.
The target group of the survey was a group of 200 women, all mothers of children between the ages of two and ten.
- 62.
A detailed account of marriage and wedding ceremonies in the 1970s rural setting in Kyushu is offered by Joy Hendry (Hendry 1981).
- 63.
In 1982, the average cost of a wedding was around 2,000,000 Yen (the rate of exchange in that period being $1 = Yen 240) without the cost of betrothal gifts and honeymoon (Edwards 1989, 49).
- 64.
The main traits of this development and the growth of the ceremonial industry will be discussed in chapter ‘Business Sector, Media, and Religious Institutions’.
- 65.
The author interprets images and representations in terms of Baudrillard’s definition of signs and symbols (Baudrillard 1981 quoted in Goldstein-Gidoni 1997, 153).
- 66.
On memorial services and funeral customs in English, see also Robert Smith’s Ancestor Worship in Contemporary Japan (1974). On more recent works in Japanese language, see, for example, Mutsuko Nakagomi’s Ihai saishi to sosenkan (2005), Ajio Fujita’s Tera, haka, sosen no minzokugaku (2004), Shinya Yamada’s Gendai Nihon no shi to sōgi (2007), and Satbyul Kim’s study on a new funeral pattern called shizensō (自然葬) (scattering of ashes in the nature) ‘Shizensō no tanjō: Kindai nihonteki kachi no kyohi’ (The Birth of Shizensō [scattering of ashes] as Rejection of Japanese Modernity‘Sōkendai bunkakagaku kenkyū 8 (2012). In English language, see also the contribution of Hirochika Nakamaki in the collection of the edited volume by van Bremen and Martinez (1995) that offers important insights on modern memorial rites performed by the Japanese companies (Nakamaki 1995).
- 67.
The author argues that this development has important implications, among others, on the concept of death in the Japanese worldview (Suzuki 2001).
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Papp, M. (2016). Consumer Culture and Changes to the Ritual Calendar in Postwar Urban Japan. In: Shichigosan. Palgrave Studies in Urban Anthropology. Palgrave Macmillan, New York. https://doi.org/10.1057/978-1-137-56538-9_4
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