Emotional Aspects of the Ie in Modern Japan:

Developing the Image of the Traditional Family between the 1890s and the 1910s

Abstract

In modern Japan, discussions on the emotional aspects of the ie (the traditional family) have been linked to the spontaneous rise of the modern family—its perceptions and norms. From the perspective of the modern family, a term circulating in the 1880s, home, was used to promote the new image of the family.

However, is it only the image of the modern family that reveals the emotional relationships in modern Japanese families? There is extensive discussion on emotional relationships connected with ie in modern Japanese family studies. Further, these relationships are often evaluated differently from those of the home. To clarify how the discourse on emotional relationships of ie has developed and is structured, I analyzed conservative family studies that focus on the period from the 1890s to the 1910s.

My findings showed that this discourse was contrary to the family image in the West, and was based on nationalist solidarity, which was a trend at that time.

In conclusion, I position the discourse on emotional relationships of ie as one type of traditional family image constructed from an imaginative reaction to modernization, which reviewed the relationship between the home and modern family in modern Japan from the perspective of emotional relationships.