Haruko's World: A Japanese Farm Woman and Her Community

by Gail Lee Bernstein

In Japan as in the United States, family farming is on the wane, increasingly rejected by the younger generation in favor of more promising economic pursuits and more sophisticated comforts. Yet for centuries past, the village and the family farm have constituted the world of the vast majority of Japanese women, as of Japanese men. The dramatic economic and demographic developments of the past two decades have orced extensive changes in the lives of Japanese farm women, many of hwom have been left virtually in charge of their family farms. This book is a study of Japanese farm women’s lives in the present its central figure is 42-year-old Haruko, a complex, vibrant woman who both exemplifies and makes a mockery of the stereotype of Japanese women. Through Haruko we learn the work routine, family relationships, and social life of the women who are the mainstay of Japanese agriculture. Other women from Haruko’s village also figure in the story, and the author’s observations of them, based largely on a six-month stay with Haruko and her family in 1974-75, are supplemented with data from questionnaires and personal interviews. An epilogue recounts the author’s return to Haruko’s village in 1982 and describes the changes that have occurred since 1975 in the lives of Haruko’s family and other village women. The book is illustrated with photographs.

Genres: Japan, Nonfiction, Anthropology, History, Sociology, Japanese Literature

242 pages, Paperback

First published June 1, 1983

Reviews

[Bob Newman · Rating 4 out of 5]

a Japanese farm community on the cusp of change

Back in the 1970s, the author of this short, descriptive study lived with a Japanese family in a village in Ehime-ken, on the island of Shikoku. She had her troubles adjusting to the restrictions and expectations of Japanese villagers, especially her host family, but she wound up fitting in. She was able to carry out the research that she wanted as well as learning how to behave in a more Japanese way. The individualistic Westerner had to put family and local society above her personal desires.
Focused primarily on the Utsunomiya family—married couple, two children, and grandmother—she describes daily life for the family, more especially Haruko, the wife. Raised to be a farm wife like all the women of the hamlet where they live, Haruko harbors dreams of a more middle class, urban life, but cannot rise beyond work in the rice fields, caring for pigs, and occasional part time work in local factories or orchards. Her husband is more socially and politically active, taking him away from farm work, which remains a sore point for Haruko. They hope to educate their children so that they will not depend on agriculture. Haruko learns to operate new farm equipment that is coming in along with rectification of land holdings so that each family’s land is in one larger parcel instead of many small ones in separate locations. We learn about the family’s social life [that takes place separately, not as a couple], about women’s clubs, about politics, and about the local patterns of drinking and sex. The author provides useful comparisons with other women because Haruko is something of an extrovert and hardly typical of Japanese farm women in general. In the 1970s, Japanese agriculture was changing rapidly. New techniques, new crops, and new methods of earning a living were becoming available. Things were not going to remain the same. Young people left for the cities more often than not. Still, traditional expectations of female behavior, related to Japanese concepts like “giri” and “on”, remained prominent.
All in all this is an interesting book, if somewhat dated today. As I’ve said before, all anthropology turns into social history and this work is no exception. The author returned to the village only 7 years later and found that circumstances had already changed. Haruko’s husband was campaigning for town chief, the family’s economic situation had improved, though the election was costing an arm and a leg. In 2019, we can only guess at what that village looks like today. If you are interested in how Japan has changed over time, get ahold of this book.

[Jess · Rating 5 out of 5]

i’m obsessed with this. it read just like a novel! bernstein is very lucky for having been able to make a living researching like this. it was so lovely and insightful.

[Jacqueline Knirnschild · Rating 5 out of 5]

Probably the best ethnography I’ve read—very accessible & illuminating. Reads more like a novel than like a scholarly text. The endurance of these Japanese farm women is truly remarkable. And the insights on the transitional postwar generation were surprisingly heart-wrenching.

“For the Japanese farm woman, the idea of women’s liberation, I’d it means anything at all, means freedom from the economic uncertainties and physical drudgery of farming, more time to spend cooking, cleaning, and sewing, and the opportunity to help the children with their homework. The Japanese farm woman, in short, yearns for a strictly domestic role. When told that an increasing number of American women find domestic chores trivial and seek what they term meaningful work outside their homes, the farm woman responds with a mixture of puzzlement and annoyance. ‘Such complaints,’ said one woman bluntly, ‘are a luxury.’

The difference in the aspirations of women from different cultures and classes underscores the need to place all social movements in both a cultural and a historical context: where you want to go depends on where you have been. Hard physical labor of the sort the Japanese woman has done in the fields with men for hundreds of years has not inspired in her the same enthusiasm for men’s work that might excite the daughters of the American suburbs. Nor does the farm woman dream of office work or a profession. She wants instead what she feels she has been cheated of: a chance to stay home, where she can create a clean, leisurely, healthful environment for her family.”

[Mazie Merriman · Rating 5 out of 5]

I read this book a few years ago and still think about it periodically. I loved learning about Haruko and seeing how she interacted with the author and with others in her community. Definitely worth the read if you're interested in the subject matter.

[Sophie · Rating 4 out of 5]

I read this in my Modern Japan class. For an anthropological study of a rural Japanese farming community with a very boring cover, this book was a hugely pleasant surrpise! It's impossible to read this and not adore Haruko. It is well-written, culturally enlightening, and extremely sympathetic. The gender stuff and the sheer physical labor of life on the farm was most interesting to me, but it was all really great. I would recommend it to anybody who likes a good, honest story, a glimpse into a vastly different culture (both the Japanese and rural aspects) and supremely likable characters, whether or not you are into non-fiction academic case studies!

[Chris · Rating 3 out of 5]

It's interesting to see how different people's lives are depending on what community they are born into. It's an interesting and easy-going book about Haruko and what her life is like and what she thinks about it in comparison to a more western life. It's light and enjoyable word fare.

[Jonathan · Rating 4 out of 5]

This highly readable account of an anthropologist’s sojourn in rural Japan is as much a story about friendship transcending cultural differences as it is a description of Japanese rural society. It will appeal to anyone who appreciates the endless variety of ways in which human beings connect with each other.

In 1974, Gail Lee Bernstein went to live with Shōichi and Haruko Utsunomiya in the hamlet of Bessho, Uwa-chō, Higashiuwa-gun (most of which became Seiyo City in 2004), Ehime Prefecture (on Shikoku). Bernstein’s objective was to study the lives of rural farm women in Japan. In this book she tells us what she learned, centering her narrative on the life of Haruko Utsunomiya. Bernstein developed a warm personal relationship with her subject; as a result, her book reads more like a memoir than a scholarly monograph (a fortunate result from the perspective of the general reader).

Bernstein is an astute observer of personalities and relationships, but her material seems to illustrate universal aspects of human nature rather than anything specific to rural Japan. I suppose this shows how social anthropology will inevitably bleed into literature.

The reader senses that Bernstein was up against two cultural divides: one separating East from West and another separating town and country. One is sometimes left wondering if she had ever visited an American farm household before going to Japan. Her decision to “dress down” in the presence of her hosts (thinking she could relate more easily to them if she adopted an earthier persona) betrays a misunderstanding common among city folk who have never stayed overnight on a farm.

Bernstein remained in touch with the Utsuonomiyas for some decades after her initial visit. The later chapters of the book describe the changes in the couple’s lives and in the community at large that she observed over this period. This long-term perspective gives added power to the humane instincts that permeate this thoughtful book.

[Ashley · Rating 3 out of 5]

I really liked this fascinating glimpse into rural Japanese farming life on the brink of Westernization/modernization, and as far as academic books go it was pretty readable and engaging. My only quibble is that in trying to be both an approachable memoir and an academic monograph, it somehow fell between the two and became neither. I wanted more from each side of it.

[Rogue Reader · Rating 3 out of 5]

Anthropological study of a rural agricultural family, the accomplishments and political ambitions of the husband, the domestic control exerted by the wife. More, the widespread community research and observations of a community. Spheres of control

[Ensiform · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is two books in one: first, it's a social history of the decline of the Japanese rural family that came with mechanization in the 1970s and '80s, and an account of the work that farm women did and do; on the other hand it's a diary of Bernstein's stay with Haruko and Sho-ichi, a farming couple in Bessho, Shikoku.

Unfortunately, the book's grand scope doesn't serve it well, and the text becomes disjointed at times. Haruko is a fascinating individual, and so it's an intriguing and well-written story. But the book would have accomplished more if it had been only the diary of life in Haruko's household and village, instead of trying to delve into other individual farm women's lives as well, or rather if Bernstein had told the general story through Haruko's personal experience, which she does admirably in her section on her return to Bessho a decade later. In all, though, that the book bites off more than it can chew doesn't completely overshadow its readability, intriguing descriptions of cultural clash and interesting observations on Japan

[Gerald · Rating 3 out of 5]

This one was written by an old college professor of mine. I was forced to read it as part of the curriculum for a Japanese History class. It's not a fabulous read, but I think worth working your way through to get an idea of the female's historic lifestyle and struggle in Japan.

[sana · Rating 3 out of 5]

Interesting ethnography of a woman in Northern Japan

[Maxine Turret · Rating 4 out of 5]

Rural Japan in the '70's and then revisited over time, from a woman's perspective. So familiar and close to "home." Actually, the town is in south western Shikoku, close to Kyushu.

[Patricia · Rating 4 out of 5]

I really enjoyed this "study" of a Japanese farm woman, her family and community. It is remniscient of Margery Wolf's books, which I also thoroughtly enjoyed.

[Nicole1999 · Rating 3 out of 5]

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