In an attempt to assess the actual condition of everyday food taken by the people in Okinawa during the period covering from the late Meiji through the early Taisho eras, the following two approaches were taken; (1) A survey of existing old literatures, (2) Fact-finding interviews with 72 persons of old ages. The main findings of our studies are as follows :
1) From the survey of literatures, it was judged that the food intakes of the ordinary people during the late Meiji era were very poor and meager.
2) The physical measurement of school children were below the national norms and the difference became larger as the age progressed, and the children as a group showed a body type with a relatively bigger chest measurement compared with the height.
3) The production of the sweet-potatoes being predominant, the typical meal regardless of the time of meals during the day consisted of a simple combination of boild sweet-potatoes and soup. Sweet potatoes, which were suited as supplementary diet, were also taken as between-meal snack. Production of soy-bean was relatively high and the home-made Tofu was an important source of protein. Among the main vegetables were sweet-potato leaves, towel gourd, balsam pear, etc. and such wild vegetables as Yomogi, Nigana, Nobiru etc. They were used in soup, cooked, fried or dressed food.
4) The main preserved foods included black sugar-pickles, dried bean leaves, salted pork, salted fishes, etc. Tofuyo was cited as an unusual food characteristic to this part of Japan.

View full abstract

Efficiency in extraction of taste components for the preparation of broth from Katsuobushi, Niboshi, and chicken and swine bones was examined by determining amounts of extracted ribonucleotides, which were considered to indicate amounts of taste components extracted, by isotacophoresis.
1) 5'-IMP was most effectively extracted from the abdominal segment of Katsuobushi slices at a low concentration (2% v/v) in water, followed by the black meat and dorsal segment; one min boiling of the abdominal segment was sufficient to extract nearly a maximal amount of the nucleotide but that of the dorsal segment gave only a negligible amount. Increases in concentration of the materials decreased amounts of the nucleotide extracted; no differences were found in amounts of the nucleotide extracted from the dorsal, abdominal, and black meat segment at a concentration level of 6% (v/v).
2) Prolonging extraction time and presoaking in water in the case of Niboshi increased amounts of IMP extracted; presoaking was found to increase efficiency in its extraction in a short period of time.
3) Amounts of ADP, IMP, and AMP extracted from chicken bone were much greater than those from swine bone and their amounts reached a constant maximum by boiling for 90 min.
4) The present study substantiated that the conventional methods used for the preparation of the types of broth subject to the present study are efficient in extraction of IMP.

View full abstract

Preference for prepared foods depend heavily on types of stimuli given by a particular food item such as taste, appearance, texture and flavor which have been developed in cooking processes. In the present study analysis was performed on elements contributing greatly to preference for 71 prepared foods and their proportions were determined by means of psychological partitioning methods.
Respondents were 165 in number and 20-25 years of age. The food items were selected in the same manner as in a previous paper. Results obtained are summarized as follows :
1. Each food item was classified according to the importance of taste, appearance, texture and flavour. The results obtained would provide practical informations in serving appropriate foods to different groups.
2. The most important factor among others that influenced the preference for foods by each group was sourness for children, fattiness for the young, appearance for females and texture for the aged.

View full abstract

The variations of components during the maturity of Okinawan Tofuyo have been examined and the following results have been obtained.
1) Crude protein contents of dehydrated soybean curd was found to be 13% at first, and decreased with maturing time (1, 3 and 6 months) to 7-10%.
2) By the employment of ion exchange resin column chromatography as the pretreatment, acidic and neutral amino acids were clearly separated from basic amino acids, and consequently, we observed relative increase of aspartic and glutamic acids with maturing and the contents of total amino acid also increased in Tofuyo and Soak.
3) It was observed that some protein bands of Tofuyo were disappeared during the mature (1, 3 and 6 months) by SDS gel-electrophoresis.
4) As to the ratio of fatty acids in Tofuyo and Soak, the content of linolenic acid decreased following the mature. Since linoleic acid is relatively stable, the proportion of it to the total content of fatty acid increase with increasing the maturing time.

View full abstract

The difference threshold of viscousness of the potato starch paste was examined by the paired discrimination test. The viscous behavior of the paste was measured by the B type viscometer. Junior high school girls were on the panel.
The apparent viscosity, the flow behavior index, and the yield stress of the starch paste were obtained. It was found that the flow behavior of the paste was the shear thinning plastic flow.
The difference thresholds of viscousness by the oral method were 17.9% for 109 cP, 10.0% for 1, 440 cP, and 14.1% for 4, 470 cP. Based upon these results, it was recognized, as in the case of the female university students reported previously, that the threshold of sensory viscosity for junior high school girls changed with the change of the instrumentally measured viscosity. It was also shown that the threshold for the junior high school girls was larger than that for the female students.

View full abstract

There have been very few papers on the theoretical curves of arm-hole and top of sleeve. So, the author contrived a graphical method of these curves theoretically, by using the intersection of sleeve and bodice, concerning to the bodice silhouette, and position and angle of the sleeve. On the practical modifications by shrinking of fabric and the like, the author would refer to the succeeding papers.

View full abstract

It is well known that an important factor in soil removal is the mechanical action of the washing machine.
In this paper, relation between washing efficiency and revolution speed of the pulsator was investigated at several levels of wash liquor and/or load fabrics.
Following results were obtained ;
1) Revolution speed of pulsator decreases as much as 6% when 10-40 liter of wash liquor is added, and further decrease of 5% in rpm were observed when load fabrics were applied at the liquor ratio of over 1 : 25. Rpm decrease and dispersion of washing efficiency in a suds at the liquor ratio of 1 : 17 were extremely remarkable.
2) No significant difference of washing efficiency between the liquor ratios of 1 : 30 and 1 : 17 was observed, though the dispersion at 1 : 17 was increasing and the washing efficiency lowering at 1 : 39 was significant because of the decrease in dispersion.
3) When a small amount of load fabrics have to be applied, dispersion of washing efficiency will be lessened when the liquor ratio is adjusted to 1 : 26 by controlling the amount of water.

View full abstract

In addition to the analytical methods of x-ray photography, microscopic observation and reflection spectroscopy, the authors have succeeded in the non-destructive analysis of textile pigments by means of energy dispersive x-ray fluorescence spectroscopy (EDX) with regard to two kinds of traditional textile fabrics, namely, Maiwai coat and Bingata cloths.
The EDX measurements show, in both cases, that mercury sulfide is always used for red color and arsenic sulfide for yellow. The authors have also shown that the green color in Maiwai is produced by the combination of As2S3 and indigo, that an inorganic pigment Berlin blue is probably used in certain cases with the blue color of indigo and that the purple color is expressed also by the combination of HgS and indigo in Bingata cloths.

View full abstract

There is an increasing tendency to prefer ready-built houses on account of a great rise in land prices and the difficulty in getting land. It seems that ready-built houses will be made more and more. Therefore, we have investigated how the families living in those houses utilize the living space and how they feel their houses.
Results are summarized as follows :
1) Most of the families want to have an exclusive dining room which preferably has the measurements of 3.6m×3.6m.
2) A family get-together is held in the living room. This room is made in western style and naturally chairs are used there. Many persons prefer chairs to tatamibecause they feel comfortable in chairs.
3) Quite a few persons want to have a room to be exclusively used for visitors. However, still more persons want to have larger living room and dining room rather than to have a guest room.
4) A master bed room is hardly used exclusively.
5) Although their houses are rather spacious, almost all persons are not satisfied with the planning of their houses; especially they complain of not having enough space in the living room.

View full abstract

This study was undertaken at Otaki Village, Saitama Prefecture, to see how the taboo as a custom of life remains, in regard to age, sex, occupation, region it is accepted, and how it is closely related with life.
The results obtained are summarized as follows :
1) The grade scores of taboo permeation calculated have an average value of 2.3, and those who have values of more than 3.0 are about 50 percent of all.
2) The grade score goes up from the younger class to the older class, the latter seeming to attach more importance in relation to social customs.
3) Those who engage in agriculture and forestry, which have something to do taboos.
4) The taboo on “mourning of a funeral, the impurity of death, ” “mourning at morning and night” are still practiced more powerfully than others.
5) The taboos related to daily life have the highest grade.

View full abstract

From investigation of time budgets in September 1975, of 200 couples where husbands are teachers, and wives are employed or non-employed and living in Tokyo, we re-calculated former data by several methods to study the quality of time budgets.
The following results were obtained.
1) Housework time of the family is the housework time done by both husbands and wives. Percentage of husbands' time working in the family for week days was 14% in the homes of employed wives, and 2.5% in the homes of non-employed wives.
2) Couples where husbands did housework were selected, and the average hours of the person who did housework were analyzed. Results were 65 min for employed wive's family, and 36 min for non-employed wives'.
3) The duration of time per action in time budgets of wives as analyzed by a “Scale of Time Fragmentation” showed that their durations were short during the earlier stages of their life cycle.
4) The “Time Belt” restriction of cooking, house-cleaning and laundry showed a gradual decline.
5) Joint activity time of 20 couples according to life stages were analyzed. Time spent together in the home of employed wives was more than in the home of non-employed wives. The time that husbands did housework and wives did other than housework in the home of employed wives was more than in the home of non-employed wives.

View full abstract

[in Japanese]

View full abstract

[in Japanese]

View full abstract