Shinohata: A Portrait of a Japanese Village

by Ronald Dore

Ronald Dore offers the reader insight into the changing rural life of Japan in this fascinating study of a village some 100 miles from Tokyo where he lived first in 1955 and again in the early 1970s. A new Afterword reports on the acceleration of change to a once self-sufficient community most of whose young men now commute to city jobs instead of working the land. Dore comments on the effects of the 1993 election―Shinohata in a non-LDP-governed Japan.

Genres: Japan, History, Travel, Sociology, Japanese Literature

341 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1978

Reviews

[Bob Newman · Rating 4 out of 5]

Reforms seen from the bottom up

When Japan began to modernize around 1870, it was, in most ways, no different from many countries in Asia or Africa. The two things that might be said to have distinguished it then were 1) a higher level of literacy and 2) an extremely well-organized society held together with a wide variety of local ties which merged with broader ones. The story of Japanese industrialization and military ambition is too well-known to go into here, plus that story is not the theme of this book. However, the end result of that century of history (if 1955-1975 may be considered “the end”) really is the main topic of SHINOHATA, published in 1978 as one of the last of Pantheon’s series on villages of the world.

Dore wished to study what effect the land reforms of the American occupation had had on rural society. He went to this mountain village in 1955 and carried out a very detailed examination of family relationships, land ownership, housing, sources of income, education, mechanization, and village organization (among other things). He followed this up with visits in the 1970s to see how things had changed. They had changed immensely, but Shinohata still functioned as a village. He made many friends there and was obviously liked in the village. To read a dense, but well-written study of a Japanese village of that era, you ought to turn to SHINOHATA. You will learn of rice growing, silk production, their forestry projects, and how the pull of the cities affects the village. You will meet (at least briefly) a number of the village characters and hear about some of the quarrels and odd things they got up to. You find out about the endless gift giving, saké parties, marriage and funeral arrangements and a hundred other interesting details. He looks at both men and women, he interviews the poor and the rich, the oyabun and kobun (“those obliging and those with obligations”). Each of that Pantheon series has its own style. Dore’s style is mostly straight-out sociological, but with a large number of Japanese voices illustrating various points he wishes to make. It also provides some British humor which makes for more enjoyable reading. Overall, you will get the flavor of a Japanese village of those times. Though the village was much better off materially, some of the cohesiveness and social life had gone.

If anthropology is more an art than a science, that is because it relies so much on interpretation. Interpretation will always be subjective. Dore hoped to be as objective as possible, that is why he delved into history from Tokugawa times; that is why he perhaps decided to insert a heavier load of statistics and hard facts than found in some other books in this series. Those interested in Japan should definitely include this book on their reading list, but be aware that it is not quite bedtime reading.

[Smiley · Rating 4 out of 5]

I found reading this 18-chapter book revealing and rewarding due to its narrations on the land reform in a Japanese village after World War II and recorded accounts by Professor Ronald Dore who knows Japanese and stayed in Shinohata in 1955, then in 1970's; moreover, "He went back many times thereafter to stay with friends." (inner front cover) His sociological study processes including what he witnessed as his first-hand accounts were then be duly analyzed so that his readers would be informed as objectively as possible.

Published more than three decades ago, it looked like one of the ordinary texts shelved in universities’ libraries and we know that we rarely read all chapters like some novels we love, rather we browse by the index, then a few chapters with their paragraphs having related information/data essential for good references in our studies, researches, theses, etc. When I first came across this one, I thought I would not finish reading it at all. However, the author wrote so well that I later changed my mind and why did I keep reading it? This is not easy to explain, I think, it’s better to provide some examples from his clear, readable writing, something I found revealing right at the Preface, for instance:

… Having embarked on a project of this sort one is reluctant to abandon it, and having finished a book one is reluctant to tear it up and not publish. What is more I much enjoyed the two months I have since spent in Shinohata with the purpose of writing this book in mind, and many parts of the book itself were a pleasure to write. But still I have some misgivings – on two counts.
The first is about making fun of people. I like to think that I have a sense of humour, and in spite of some years of immersion in Japanese life it is largely an English sense of humour. …
The second problem is less serious. For someone who has been a sober social scientist all his life, concerned with scholarship and social generalization, a bedside-reading, human-interest kind of book is not an easy one to write. … The resulting mix of anecdote and what some people might be pleased to call structural analysis does reflect fairly accurately what I want to say about Shinohata, to the general reader rather than to my fellow sociologists. … (pp. 11-12)

However, I don’t mean this is a page turner because, in fact, there are some parts I didn’t find pleasure in reading due to some cultural concepts with which I was not familiar, for example, in Chapter 18 Neighbours and Equals on the complex ‘oyabun’ and ‘kobun’ ties (pp. 287-311); this excerpt affirmed the author’s problem:

How different oyabun-kobun relations were in 1940 from what they had been in 1890 I have no certain means of knowing beyond a few clues. There was the story of Tsunashige’s father, who said on one of the occasions when Gontaro’s father called for a labour-service work party, that in this day and age oyabun could afford to pay for labour. The remark reached Gontaros’ father’s ears and the Tsunashige household suffered excommunication. … (pp. 296-297)

I especially liked Chapter 11 Growing-Up and hoped my GR friends would find it interestingly amazing, second to none in the modern world. For instance, the author tells us about Family Day being the first Sunday in every month with slogans and topics for family discussion (p. 193). From my note: This is a Japanese way of familial democracy at home, almost none in other countries could have done like Japanese people. I think they have been culturally, admiringly advanced in terms of their practical ways of educating their young people since, for the sake of short quoting, this is one of the two aims worth reading and reflecting:

To ensure that young men and young women fully and proudly appreciate their responsibilities as the pillars of society in the next generation, and grow up full of hope and determination to build themselves a glittering future by their own efforts. (p.195)

In essence, this suggests Japan’s future, success and nationalism as mutually formed and formidably constructed towards one of the most advanced, civilized and developed countries in the world in this 21st century and beyond.
Endnote:
I'm watching a Japanese film on YouTube entitled Warabinokou (To the bracken fields) depicting an Edo family living in a remote mountainous rural area and a retreat called Warabino as Warabis for those aged 60+; comparatively, we may view it to gain our supplementarily understanding background on the contemporary Japanese society. Please visit this site: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=npq7L... or leave it at that.

[Benjamin Espen · Rating 5 out of 5]

Having read two books on Japan by British authors, I am always pleased by dry sense of humor they bring to their work. The nonchalance with which Dore described the practice of "nightcrawling" by salacious youths had me chuckling to myself for hours.

However, this was an excellent book for seeing rural Japanese life as it was and is. Of particular interest was the observations the author made over twenty years as the country began its rapid industrial growth after the second world war.

There are enough tidbits (or as Dore would say, "titbits") here to keep me entranced for a long time. I might revisit this book again sometime.

[Andy Todd · Rating 2 out of 5]

Dore's account of his time spent in a Japanese village in the late 1950's - unusual for a Westerner though he had learnt the language during the war. He portrays rural Japan undergoing important changes and is sympathetic to the peasants living through it.

[Steve · Rating 3 out of 5]

I read this book because it was strongly featured in Jane Jacobs' Cities and the Wealth of Nations. If any reader of Shinohata wants to see all his sociological findings coalesced, and given a unique impression, I recommend also reading Jacobs.

This is an interesting book, but like Dore says, it is a blend of the personal anecdotes and stories of the inhabitants of Shinohata with the sociological findings of Dore. It left me a bit unfilled because I wanted to know a bit more of each.

I was most interested in how the inhabitants changed their perspectives, and psyches, based on the economic changes of their town, such as how the older inhabitants felt soft in comparison to their ancestors, or even to their childhood.

Overall, the book is interesting for its impressions, but not visionary because their were few prescriptions, in my opinion. If anything, I admire the way Jacobs was able to use this book so effectively to make her own points.

[Adobe · Rating 3 out of 5]

This minor book charts the postwar developments and local personalities of a rural Japanese village. The British author seems to have built up enough trust over twenty years that the much-quoted Shinohata villagers are completely candid about their family relationships and local squabbles. It's chockablock full of information about farming, architecture, and local rituals. It's all a little too distant and clinical to recommend to a casual reader, but if you (for some reason) need to know about rural Japanese life in 1955, this book is an excellent source.