女子中等教育機関における洋装制服導入過程

地域差・学校差・性差

抄録

This study clarifies the adoption of western style uniforms in women's middle schools in the rural districts during the 1920-1930 period. The historical study of female students' uniforms have traditionally highlighted the cases of women's high schools in city areas. Consequently, the effects of regional differences and the disparity among schools have been overlooked in the previous research. In this study, the process of adoption is explicated from various dimensions by examining these factors. The areas focused on are two counties located in the west end of Shimane prefecture.
In the big cities like Tokyo, women's middle schools tended to adopt the uniforms according to their own school policies. There seemed to be no regular pattern in the adoption. Contrary to this, in Shimane prefecture, there are some regulations in the adoption according to the disparity among schools. The four prefectural women's high schools, which had the highest prestige in this prefecture, adopted in the same year, 1924. Adopting western style uniforms in 1924 was earlier here than most of women's middle schools in Tokyo. This means, in this prefecture, the adoption of uniforms occurred earlier in the schools which had high prestige. In Tsuwano Ko-Jo, one of the prefectural women's high schools, students started to wear the western style uniforms in 1924 with no particular impressions, while the men in Tsuwano area looked at them with critical eyes. They did not have to feel any conflict as they were supported by their school's prestige. At that time, the other schools in the nearby area had not adopted the uniforms, though their area itself was more modernized than the Tsuwano area. This was because these schools had less prestige than that of Tsuwano Ko-Jo. In the west part of Shimane prefecture, the western style uniforms worked as the presentation ofranking in the women's middle schools.
This study aims to make clear the process of the westernization of uniforms in rural areas without using the standard model of the city area. At the same time, this study shows in examining how the disparity among female schools helps to create rank among the girls, and how the uniform performs as the representation of prestige.