Makiko's Diary: A Merchant Wife in 1910 Kyoto - Hardcover

Nakano, Makiko

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0804724407 ISBN 13: 9780804724401

Publisher: Stanford University Press, 1995

Synopsis

This intimate and richly informative diary kept in 1910 by the young wife of a bustling merchant household in Kyoto is an engaging, unique glimpse into the lives of ordinary people in early twentieth-century Japan. Includes 53 illustrations.

About this title

Review

"All the relevant explication, notes, maps and illustrations a researcher of modern Japanese social history could desire. . . . [The book] offers insights into the daily lives of 20th-century Japanese women and helps dispel the mythology."--Library Journal

"This truly remarkable diary . . . [is] a valuable text for a wide range of classes in anthropology, history, and women's studies."--Margery Wolf

Synopsis

This is the intimate and richly informative diary kept in 1910 by the young wife of a bustling merchant household in Kyoto. Makiko writes perceptively about both special occasions (such as weddings, funerals, ancestral memorial services, and festivals) and the daily routine of her complex household. The year 1910 was a fascinating transitional time in the social and cultural history of Japan. Makiko's husband shared with a stream of visitors to the household his keen interest in the many changes that had been set in motion by Japan's opening to the West a half century earlier. Almost all of the Japanese women whose accounts of family life are available in English were members of the elite or individuals who distinguished themselves in public life or in the arts. Makiko's diary differs in that it is a spirited, first-hand account of the domestic world of a housewife, the role played by a vast majority of Japanese women.

About this edition

• Publisher: Stanford University Press
• Publication date: 1995
• ISBN 10: 0804724407
• ISBN 13: 9780804724401
• Binding: Hardcover
• Number of pages: 312