KAKEIBO MONOGATARI: WOMEN’S CONSUMERISM AND THE POSTWAR JAPANESE KITCHEN, 1945-1964 by HILLARY J. MAXSON A DISSERTATION Presented to the Department of History and the Graduate School of the University of Oregon in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy March 2018 DISSERTATION APPROVAL PAGE Student: Hillary J. Maxson Title: Kakeibo Monogatari: Women’s Consumerism and the Postwar Japanese Kitchen, 1945-1964 This dissertation has been accepted and approved in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the Doctor of Philosophy degree in the Department of History by: Jeffrey Hanes Chairperson Andrew Goble Core Member Julie Hessler Core Member Barbara Sato Core Member Alisa Freedman Institutional Representative and Sara D. Hodges Interim Vice Provost and Dean of the Graduate School Original approval signatures are on file with the University of Oregon Graduate School. Degree awarded March 2018 ii © 2018 Hillary J. Maxson iii DISSERTATION ABSTRACT Hillary J. Maxson Doctor of Philosophy Department of History March 2018 Title: Kakeibo Monogatari: Women’s Consumerism and the Postwar Japanese Kitchen, 1945-1964 This dissertation explores the history of Japanese home cooking during the formative postwar period—focusing on the women who were responsible for its development. My research demonstrates that as the primary consumers who typically controlled the finances in their homes, and as the primary cooks, women shaped and directed many of the dietary and technological changes that took place in the postwar Japanese kitchen. Chapter II argues that self-proclaimed housewife Nakamura Kimiko’s pragmatic approach to household economy, demonstrated through her devotion to kakeibo (personal household account book) keeping, equipped her with the tools she needed to become a political leader in her community, as she became a central figure in Seikyō Co-Op’s kakeibo movement and their campaigns for food safety throughout the 1970s. Kimiko’s political participation was part of a broader pattern of women’s civic engagement in postwar Japan: her politics were tied specifically to her role as a consumer. Chapter III examines the transformation in common nutrition knowledge that played out in the pages of women’s kakeibo—both in the published and nationally circulated copies of kakeibo, and in the ways that women like Kimiko used kakeibo. Chapter IV takes up the “bright iv life” years (1955-1962) from the perspective of consumers. It attributes value to household appliances, specifically kitchen appliances, based on how they affected women’s domestic labor. Chapter V argues that women were integral to postwar changes in Japanese cuisine. Women bore the burden of bringing new ingredients and dishes to everyday life in the postwar home, and their consumption, labor, and cooking were integral to culinary change. Current scholarship on postwar Japanese cuisine focuses on empire, politics, and macroeconomics as the impetuses of change, effectively placing the efforts of women at the periphery of historical narratives. My research contributes to current scholarship by demonstrating that the mental and physical labor many women carried out on a daily basis played an equally important role in transforming food in everyday life in postwar Japan. v CURRICULUM VITAE NAME OF AUTHOR: Hillary J. Maxson GRADUATE AND UNDERGRADUATE SCHOOLS ATTENDED: University of Oregon, Eugene University of Nevada Las Vegas, Las Vegas DEGREES AWARDED: Doctor of Philosophy, History, March 2018, University of Oregon Master of Arts, History, June 2012, University of Oregon Bachelor of Arts, History, December 2008, University of Nevada Las Vegas AREAS OF SPECIAL INTEREST: Modern Japanese History and Culture History of Women and Gender Food History PROFESSIONAL EXPERIENCE: Graduate Teaching Fellow, University of Oregon, 2011-2018 GRANTS, AWARDS, AND HONORS: Department of History Research Travel Grant, University of Oregon, 2017 Center for the Study of Women in Society, University of Oregon, 2016 Center for Asian and Pacific Studies Small Professional Grant, University of Oregon, 2016 Oregon Humanities Center Dissertation Fellowship, University of Oregon, 2016 Foreign Language and Area Studies Fellowship, University of Oregon, 2014-2015 Thomas T. Turn Prize for Academic Success, University of Oregon, 2014 vi Center for Asian and Pacific Studies Small Professional Grant, University of Oregon, 2014 Center for Asian and Pacific Studies Small Professional Grant, University of Oregon, 2013 Foreign Language and Area Studies Fellowship, University of Oregon, 2011-2012 PUBLICATIONS: Maxson, Hillary J. “From ‘Motherhood in the Interest of the State’ to Motherhood in the Interest of Mothers: Rethinking the First Mothers’ Congress.” In Rethinking Japanese Feminisms, ed. by Julia Bullock, Ayako Kano, and James Welker. Honolulu: University of Hawai’i Press, 2017. vii ACKNOWLEDGMENTS This project would not have been possible without the guidance and encouragement of the following mentors, colleagues, and friends. I am grateful to my advisor, Jeffrey E. Hanes, who guided me throughout my graduate career and supported this project from its inception, offering extensive advice and feedback along the way. Andrew E. Goble taught a number of seminars that helped me broaden my topical and thematic expertise. Julie Hessler encouraged me to engage with food history and helped me think comparatively about the topic. Alisa Freedman alerted me to trends in the field that proved helpful. Barbara Sato taught me the ropes of conducting research in Japan and gave great advice on working with women’s magazines. April Haynes pushed me to think critically about women’s and gender history. Yoshimi Shunya served as my advisor at the University of Tokyo and offered helpful advice along the way. Many thanks to my friends and colleagues from the University of Oregon, including Carrie Adkins, Josh Fitzgerald, Tristan Grunow, Bree Goosmann, Emily Cole, Alison Dodd, Jessica Gibson, Haley Williamson, Lucas Erickson, Lucas Burke, Molly Ingram, Rebecca Hastings, and Nichelle Frank. Words cannot express my gratitude to Nakamura Kimiko for sharing her kakeibo and her life with the world. Kimiko’s story made this project more meaningful than I ever imagined. I also want to thank Yamazaki Yūko at the National Women’s Education Center for facilitating my meeting with Nakamura Kimiko. I greatly appreciate Hara Tomiko, Samejima Kimie, and Yamada Kazuhiro for taking the time to meet with me as well. This project was supported by grants and fellowships from a number of academic viii entities at the University of Oregon, including the Center for Asian and Pacific Studies, the Center for the Study of Women in Society, the Oregon Humanities Center, and the Department of History. I am grateful to the archivists and support staff at the Ishikawa Takeyoshi Memorial Library for all of their help. On a more personal level, I would like to thank my good friends Heather MacDavid, Leslie Tassoni, Julie Stocks, and Dez Dayton for their support. My friend, Yoshioka Kaori, showed me how to shop for ingredients at a Japanese grocery store and taught me how to cook a few wonderful home-cooked meals. My family has always believed in me, and I am grateful to them for that. Finally, special thanks are due to my partner, Kobayashi Yūhei, for all of his love and support, and to my best furry friend, Midori. ix This dissertation is dedicated to my parents, who never told me the odds. x TABLE OF CONTENTS Chapter Page I. INTRODUCTION.................................................................................................... 1 Historiography ....................................................................................................... 5 The History of Kakeibo ......................................................................................... 12 Sources................................................................................................................... 17 Organization........................................................................................................... 19 II. POLITICS IN THE KITCHEN............................................................................... 24 Education, Labor, and Leisure............................................................................... 29 Housing, Kitchen, and Family ............................................................................... 39 Income and Expenditures....................................................................................... 47 Politics ................................................................................................................... 55 Retirement.............................................................................................................. 61 Conclusion ............................................................................................................. 62 III. BALANCED BUDGET, BALANCED DIET....................................................... 64 Balanced Budget .................................................................................................... 68 Balanced Diet......................................................................................................... 75 Conclusion: Balanced Budget, Balanced Diet, and Kimiko’s Kakeibo................. 98 IV. PURCHASER CONSUMERS AND USER CONSUMERS IN THE ERA OF HOME ELECTRIFICATION................................................................................ 101 Towards the Bright Life........................................................................................