2021 Volume 72 Issue 5 Pages 260-271
A survey was conducted on home economics textbooks for girls' high schools using magazine articles of Shufunotomo as supplementary materials before World War II to clarify the historical transition of education related to “home cleaning” in schools from the Meiji era to the Showa prewar period. The analysis was performed using 10 items of the life structure factor. The results are as follows:
1) A description about cleaning was extracted from 47 textbooks out of 49. Many textbooks included a section on cleaning in the “Housing” chapter in the first volume.
2) Daily and weekly cleaning, which focused on a specific day of the week, monthly cleaning, and general cleaning in spring and autumn are described in the textbooks. They also explained sweeping, wiping and washing as daily cleaning activities.
3) After the Taisho era, mops and vacuum cleaners were recommended as tools that could reduce labor and provide effective cleaning.
4) Descriptions were found in which servants would do the cleaning in the Meiji era, but in the Taisho era there were many “housewives” and “women,” and such descriptions decreased in the Showa prewar period.
5) Many textbooks described cleaning as being important for housing preservation and hygiene. In addition, it was noted that cleaning was important for one's mental health after the middle of the Taisho era and especially in the Showa era.
