Makiko's Diary: A Merchant Wife in 1910 Kyoto

by Makiko Nakano

Overview

This is the intimate and richly informative diary kept in 1910 by the young wife of a bustling merchant household in Kyoto. Makiko's husband was the had of his family's pharmaceutical business, and because the store and the family's living quarters were under one roof, it was a very busy place. Makiko writes perceptively about both special occasions (such as weddings, funerals, ancestral memorial services, and festivals) and the daily routine of the complex household.

Almost all of the Japanese women whose accounts of family life are available in English were members of the elite or individuals who distinguish 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 the vast majority of Japanese women. Makiko herself emerges as an engaging young woman, displaying flashes of sly humor, anger, sarcasm, and self-pity to temper her usual cheerfulness, eagerness to please, and determination to become a better person. Hers is a compelling voice.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780804724401
Publisher:	Stanford University Press
Publication date:	01/01/1995
Edition description:	1
Pages:	280
Product dimensions:	6.00(w) x 9.00(h) x (d)

About the Author

Kazuko Smith is a retied Lecturer in the Japanese Language Program of Cornell University.

Editorial Reviews

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

University of Iowa - Margery Wolf

"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, University of Iowa

From the Publisher

While interviewing in Japan for the Washington Post in 1991-92, journalist Bumiller chronicled through an interpreter a year in the life of Mariko, "an ordinary Japanese woman," and her family and neighborhood. Her struggle to balance her own needs with those of her family is a "reminder that certain universalities transcend borders." Like the author's May You Be the Mother of a Hundred Sons (LJ 5/1/90), about Indian women, Mariko is best suited to young adults despite its occaisional clichs. In 1910 Makiko Nakano (1890-1978) was a newlywed daughter-in-law with responsibilities in a busy family community that functioned both as a residence and as a store. Likable, assiduous Makiko detailed changes taking place in her early-20th-century Japanese town and domestic life in her diary. Nakano Takashi's 1981 publication of his mother's record is in Japanese-language collections of many university libraries. Translator Smith (Japanese, Cornell Univ., ret.), who is associated with the creation of The Diary of a Japanese Innkeeper's Daughter (Cornell Univ. East Asia Program, 1984), provides all the relevant explication, notes, maps, and illustrations a researcher of modern Japanese social history could desire. Both works offer insights into the daily lives of 20th-century Japanese women and help dispel the mythology; both are recommended for public library and women's studies collections, though Makiko's Diary is essential for academic and scholarly libraries.Helen Rippier Wheeler, formerly with SLIS, Univ. of California-Berkeley,

Library Journal