<論文>『食道楽』作家・村井弦斎にみる消費者教育

Abstract

The image of people usually have of the female consumer today is the one of a buying cosmetics and clothes. However, originally female consumers were associated with housewives. Both images reflect the deep relation women had their home, in addition to increasing role women played throughout the process of social modernization. The aim of this article is to examine the Japanese magazine, "Fujin Sekai" ("Women's world"), one of the first mass magazines for women. I would like to clarify the image of the housewife whose main activities are cooking and shopping as an ideal and as an active female consumer at the same time. Nowadays to go to the supermarket to buy some food every day represents an important task for housewives. But in early modern Japan, shopping was unusual activity for women in general, as it was reserved to professionals like maids or cooks. Cooking was not a daily work for some women. I examined some articles about women cooking that Murai Gensai, a famous novelist of the Meiji Era, wrote on "Fujin Sekai".