Also available in hardback, 9781845205164 GBP60.00 (January, 2010) Debunks the myth of minimalist Japanese houses and domestic life to reveal how people really live Covers an excellent range of topics from decoration, architecture and display to domesticity, worship and the family Very well illustrated and full colour throughout

'This impressive study of the modern Japanese home takes the reader into the domestic worlds of middle-class men and women, showing how aesthetic practices are shaped by national ideologies regarding gender and the family, as well as by a sense of the past encountering the transformative energies of modernization.' David Morgan, Duke University

Inge Daniels is Lecturer in Social Anthropology, Institute of Social and Cultural Anthropology, University of Oxford

Acknowledgments Chapter 1 INTRODUCTION SPREAD 1: Map with locations and images of exteriors of the homes studied Chapter 2 HOMES INSIDE OUT Gates, fences and walls 'We would rather have a nice English garden' 'Everyone needs a garage' Between the window and the hallway Red buckets and neighbourhood cooperation Local communities of limited liability Conclusion: The inside out SPREAD 2: Street gardens; green fences and terracotta walls SPREAD 3: Wifely duties and neighbourhood surveillance Chapter 3 FEELING AT HOME 'The pleasures of a happy home' From tatami to chair-based living The postwar 'LDK home': 1. The sofa and dining table 2. Double beds 'Bathing is my way to relax' Tatami mats 'A space to relax' Conclusion: Affectionate ties SPREAD 4: The choreography of domestic slippers Chapter 4 TATAMI TASTES Male domestic taste and sophistication Full-time and part-time housewives A national domestic taste? Eclectic alcoves 'New is better': traditional and modern aesthetics Male minimal design The exception: a modern aesthetic scheme 'We have "a son in a box" ' Male domestic stereotypes: 'Japanese fathers have no holidays' Do-it-Yourself Conclusion: Gender stereotypes SPREAD 5: Alcoves half full or half empty? Chapter 5 STUFF AND STORAGE The ideology of tidiness Storehouse living: circulation and accumulation Storage strategies: 1. Expanding the home 2. 'Living among one's furniture' Furniture walls Dowries and provisioning The contemporary starter home Life cycle rupture points: 'if I had a house like a castle, I would take everything' Conclusion: Conduits and containers SPREAD 6: Women and their kimono SPREAD 7: Destroying and rebuilding the family home Chapter 6 TROUBLESOME THINGS Domestic disarray? Souvenir Cabinets: objects frozen in time and space Troublesome Things Commemorative gifts and unique relationships Ephemeral gifts and the renewal of relationships Surplus, divestment and informal sociality Conclusion: pressures and constraints of gift culture SPREAD 8: The Dolls Festival SPREAD 9: Bazaars and flea markets Chapter 7 THE LOCUS OF SPIRITUAL IN THE DOMESTIC The house-building ceremony The domestic cycle of 'annual events' God shelves and auspiciousness The temporality of luck Affective and material bonds with the ancestors A son's duty of care? Inter-generational tensions New family models Conclusion: Causality and self-determination SPREAD 10: Religion as action Chapter 8 CONCLUSION Notes Bibliography Index