The "Koku-Fu" and the "Edo-Shumi" design in department store of the early modern Japan

Abstract

Since Meiji, the middle class, a main customer of the department store, has been yearning for the dilettantes of “Edo-Shumi” and various goods which were easy to get their "good taste" were provided. It was goods, such as "Furyu-tools", but such a Japanese taste changed into vulgar goods in process of commercialization. We can see the same tendencies in “Koku-Fu” design. This strange interior design in the early Showa was not necessarily a thing linking directly to nationalism, but was also a result of popularization of Japanese taste.