Japan: History and Culture From Classical to Cool by Nancy K. Stalker

Author:Nancy K. Stalker [Stalker, Nancy K.]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: History, Asia, Japan
ISBN: 9780520962835
Google: WAFiDwAAQBAJ
Publisher: Univ of California Press
Published: 2018-08-14T20:28:55+00:00

MEIJI MATERIAL CULTURE

The Charter Oath had also declared the need to abandon the “evil” customs of the past, and both the state and intellectuals attempted to reform aspects of traditional material culture. In 1872, officials were ordered to adopt Western-style clothes and hairstyles. The solar calendar was adopted, replacing the traditional lunar cycle that had governed the conduct of rituals and the lives of farmers. The government issued fiats at local and national levels to try to eliminate practices that visiting foreigners would consider unseemly, antiquated, or superstitious. Day laborers were prohibited from removing their loincloth (fundoshi) when urinating in the streets, and women were prohibited from appearing bare-breasted in public. In attempting to promote Western medicine, many traditional cures offered by exorcists and shamanistic religious figures were outlawed. The goal here was to prove to the foreign powers that Japan was a civilized nation, so that the unequal treaties might be overturned. But official pronouncements were often met with indifference as the people continued to engage in their normal daily lifestyles.

Among the populace in the cities and areas around treaty ports, however, novel elements of Western material culture became fashionable. Short haircuts and beards become common among men. Suits with trousers and leather shoes replaced kimonos as chic male attire; tailors and shoemakers were among the most prosperous businessmen in Tokyo. Efforts to Westernize one’s personal appearance often resulted in a mixture of native and foreign styles; it was common to see Meiji-era gentlemen in kimonos and bowler hats. Umbrellas, gold watches, and diamond rings became conspicuous signs of one’s enlightened attitude—and wealth. Westernizing one’s appearance was generally limited to men in early Meiji, even within the imperial family; the emperor generally appeared in Western formal or military dress, but the empress typically wore traditional court clothing.

Another example is the change in diet. Bread, cakes, and ice cream spread outward from treaty-port areas to the larger population. Beef and beer were enthusiastically embraced as fashionable items of consumption. Buddhism traditionally proscribed the eating of beef; the limited livestock held by farmers were reserved for pulling plows. Nevertheless, in 1872 Emperor Meiji encouraged Japanese to begin consuming beef and mutton to build strong national physiques. Beef stews and other adaptations of Western cuisine were incorporated into the diet of the Imperial Japanese Army. Beef shops where townspeople could sample the new culinary fashion proliferated; eating beef became emblematic of civilization itself. “Aguranabe” (Sitting around the beef stew pot), an 1871 short story by Kanagaki Robun, satirized townsmen who blithely adapted foreign fashions and trends. The brief tale describes a pompous “man about thirty-five” who uses new imports like eau de cologne, carries a Western-style umbrella, and ostentatiously consults his cheap watch. While dining at one of the new beef restaurants, he strikes up a conversation with a fellow diner, first rapturously praising how “even people like ourselves can now eat beef, thanks to the fact that Japan is steadily becoming a truly civilized country.”3 He goes on to profess the

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