“Traditions” of Local Cuisine/Food and Gender

Focusing on the Magazine Shufu no tomo

Abstract

Using the postwar magazine Shufu no tomo（Housewife's Friend）as a primary source, this paper examines how the “tradition” of local cuisine/food has been emphasized, and how housewives have been designated as the keepers of this “tradition.” In my paper, “tradition” consists of “continuity,” i.e., continued since ancient times, and “goodness,” i.e., valued as good. An analysis of these narratives was carried out on articles published through 1979.

The results of this study are as follows:（1）By the mid-1960s, articles suggested innovations or improvements in local cuisine/food. At that time, the “tradition” of local cuisine/food was not emphasized;（2）Essays on the local cuisine/food choices of celebrities were published in large numbers from the mid-1950s onward, and many of these stories featured the local cuisine/food of the celebritiesʼ hometowns（ “goodness” ）;（3）Since the mid-1960s, “Ofukuro no Aji” has been acclaimed. “Ofukuro no Aji” and local cuisine/food have long been considered to be handed down（ “continuity” ）by women passing on traditions to other women-this was generalized to be their role in maintaining that continuity; （4）Housewives were given new responsibilities; this contributed to the prevention of gender order from changing.