Abstract
This study covers the period before and after the "Living Reform" that took place during the days of high economic growth in the 1960's and deals chronologically with the changes in the architecture of houses and with the type of possessions of household goods in these houses. The aim of this study is to clarify the trend in the development of housing and in living behavior, when viewed from a materialistic point of view. This paper deals with the houses of a fishing hamlet in Okinoshima Island, Lake Biwa, where a chronological comparison of the style of living of individual families in their houses, involving delving into basic conditions, has become possible. A survey was carried out previously in August, 1958 by the office to which this author belongs, regarding the houses of the hamlet under study in this paper, exclusively with regard to the households and their houses. In the present follow-up study, the survey has been directed towards the fishing houses of the same hamlet as the "1958 Survey" for a chronological comparison of the two years, i. e., 1958 and 1977. The table of contents of this paper are : 1) Constitutional changes in the dwelling groupes in the two years referred to above. 2) Constitutional changes in the dwelling houses and their improvements. 3) Composition of living room and its use. 4) The daily use of household goods and changes in living style. 5) Possession of household goods and actual style of living. The living style of the families under survey through the two years referred to above, though improved considerably, conservatively retains the intrinsic "type of living style", indicating a tendency towards a gradual shift in the basic frame of a conventional way of life and composition of dwellings, triggered off by the need to expand the living areas due to the growth of the families as well as by the positive purchase of household goods. Viewed also from the point of view of the attributes of the houses and the possession of household goods, the houses and the mode of living in the fishing village under survey, are still in the process of transformation. The index that typifies the dwelling requirements still remains fluid and unsettled.
