Dates: 06/15/2015, 06/17/2015
Fieldwork:
On Monday, 06/15, we planned on going to interview a 着物屋さん in Fuchinobe. (The shop owner said that he wasn't available on Wednesdays.)
And then for Wednesday 6/17, we went to interview a 魚屋さん and other specialty shops in the Fuchinobe area.
First we went to the 着物屋さん called つるや吳服店 where the owner told us that from what he's observed, kimono culture wasn't very popular for some time, but around 20 years ago it started coming back. He thinks it's due to the spreading of culture and Japan going more international and global - in the sense that foreigners are getting more interested in learning about Japan and Japanese culture. In addition, celebrities and famous people are also showing up on television/etc. wearing kimono and promoting it in a sense. So the owner of the 着物屋さん thought those might reasons why kimono culture is coming back - because the foreigners are bringing it back.
We asked about difficulties maintaining business, and he told us that maintaining the business isn't really an issue, but making the kimonos is starting to become an issue because making it is a hard craft and no one wants to learn. Also, the locations that make kimonos keep getting wiped out by tsunami/earthquakes/natural disasters.
When we asked him what his thoughts on 「伝統」 were, he said that tradition is something that has to change over time in order to keep on existing.
Tradition is something from the past that has changed over time and has still managed to continue despite the changes, keeping the important parts as the base.He also said:
Rather than a book of secrets, tradition has to be open to the public - that's the only way to pass it on: you have to spread it everywhere.And also,
If tradition is too specific, then it will disappear.He made a comment that since the 2020 Olympic Games will be in Japan, it would be best to spread Japanese traditions to the whole world while everyone is focused on Japan for the olympics.
On Wednesday we tried going to the 魚屋さん but it was closed...So instead we went to a different 魚屋さん around the corner.
There, they told us that they get their fish fresh from the market in Yokohama, more fresh than Tsukiji because they're caught fresh that very morning.
He also questioned whether we knew the difference between tempura and fry, and said that young people don't know the difference anymore. (We didn't know the difference.) He said that kids nowadays are busy studying all the time but a lot of what they learn actually won't be beneficial to them in the real world.
Kids these days spend their time studying and don't have time/aren't really expected to be in the kitchen to watch how their mothers make food, so they grow up never really learning how to cook from their parents (and that's why kids these days don't know how the difference between tempura and fried.)
In regards to the shop, there used to be 13~17 in the area but they've closed and now they're the last shop (which is where we found out that the 魚屋さん we were originally going to go to was not just closed for the day but closed down...)
Next we decided to go down a little further and found a tea/dried goods shop.
They sold mushrooms, all sorts of beans, and all sorts of tea (instant and leaf). They also told us that there used to be more of the same type of shop in the area but that they've all closed down - they're also the last shop in the area.
They let us sample Japanese tea and told us the best way to make and drink the tea - most people think tea is just about pouring boiling water into the tea but actually tea (from leaves) can be brewed multiple times and the temperature of the water is actually very important.
Afterwards, we went a little further down to see what else we could find and came across another 和菓子屋さん.
The owner of this 和菓子屋さん makes everything himself and participates in competitions making display models out of sweets.
Other than that, during the interview, he didn't seem very enthusiastic/passionate about his work and kind of answered our half-heartedly, it seemed. However, he did seem to open up a little more after we expressed interest in buying some of his 和菓子 and 酒まんじゅう and actually offered us one for free (and cut it in half for us) because we were all taking pictures of it.
At one point, we tried asking him about the history of his shop and kind of asked him why he decided to run a 和菓子屋さん (I may or may not have been the one to want to ask that question...), and his answer was, "Why?...Why was it?" his response kind of explained/matched his attitude in answering our questions really well - his lack of enthusiasm made me feel like he was tired of his work and was doing it because it was his job - unlike some of the other places, he wasn't passionate about it, doesn't necessarily take "great pride" or anything in making 和菓子、and it was a moment where I felt that for him, life had won over tradition.
We also tried asking him what he thought of 「伝統」, and he said 伝統」is turned around to make something brand new (新しい), and that 「伝統」 is:
うけついてさらに新しくなってきたAnd as an example, he told us that they didn't used to use chocolate in the past, but now they do.
Reflection:
Since this was our fieldwork with a focus/purpose (to find out about 「伝統」and what it means to the modern-Japanese), we tried asking the question「『伝統』っていうのは何ですか」「『伝統』っていうのはなんと思いますか。」and got some pretty interesting responses.
I was surprised that people actually said tradition was a modified/new thing - if you think about it, isn't that kind of opposite the meaning of "tradition" the way we tend to think about based on its definition. It's kind of like as we've moved into the "modern day", peoples ways of thinking have "modernized" along with it and that's why they define tradition differently as well.
We keep ending up at 和菓子屋さん but it's interesting to see how different they all are. The first time was like an introduction, whereas the second time we had more of an idea of what we were looking at. This time was also an interesting comparison because he seemed so uninterested for the most part it made me wonder why it is all these people end up doing the jobs they do and where/what kind of background everyone comes from, but since we didn't consistently ask everyone the same questions, we didn't specifically gather this kind of data - I guess it might've been good if we had.
Going to places other than 和菓子屋さん is also interesting to compare because there are 和菓子屋さん everywhere, but other places are all closing out/少なくなる because it's just too hard to keep in business.
By going to make of the same kind of place, it's easier to compare and contrast difference in attitude/see how much that specific kind of business sells/does business, and going to other kinds of places allow us to get a broader perspective of how different kinds of business are involved in/think of 「伝統」 as a part of their Japanese culture and life.