Table Of ContentLuminos is the Open Access monograph publishing program
from UC Press. Luminos provides a framework for preserving and
reinvigorating monograph publishing for the future and increases
the reach and visibility of important scholarly work. Titles published
in the UC Press Luminos model are published with the same high
standards for selection, peer review, production, and marketing as
those in our traditional program. www.luminosoa.org
What Is a Family?
The publisher and the University of California Press Foundation gratefully acknowledge
the generous support of the Philip E. Lilienthal Imprint in Asian Studies,
established by a major gift from Sally Lilienthal.
This title is freely available in an Open Access edition with generous support from
The Library of the University of California, Berkeley.
What Is a Family?
Answers from Early Modern Japan
Edited by
Mary Elizabeth Berry and
Marcia Yonemoto
UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA PRESS
University of California Press, one of the most distinguished university
presses in the United States, enriches lives around the world by advanc-
ing scholarship in the humanities, social sciences, and natural sciences. Its
activities are supported by the UC Press Foundation and by philanthropic
contributions from individuals and institutions. For more information,
visit www.ucpress.edu.
University of California Press
Oakland, California
© 2019 by Mary Elizabeth Berry and Marcia Yonemoto
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons CC BY-NC-ND license.
To view a copy of the license, visit http://creativecommons.org/licenses.
Suggested citation: Berry, M. E. and Yonemoto, M. (eds). What Is a Family?
Answers from Early Modern Japan. Oakland: University of California Press,
2019. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1525/luminos.77
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Names: Berry, Mary Elizabeth, 1947- editor. | Yonemoto, Marcia, 1964- editor.
Title: What is a family? : answers from early modern Japan / edited by Mary
Elizabeth Berry and Marcia Yonemoto.
Description: Oakland, California : University of California Press, [2019] |
Includes bibliographical references and index. | This work is licensed
under a Creative Commons CC BY-NC-ND license. To view a copy of the
license, visit http://creativecommons.org/licenses.
Identifiers: LCCN 2019008998 (print) | LCCN 2019016499 (ebook) |
ISBN 9780520974135 (ebook) | ISBN 9780520316089 (pbk. : alk. paper)
Subjects: LCSH: Families—Japan—History—Edo period, 1600-1868. |
Japan—Social life and customs—1600-1868. | Japan—History—Tokugawa
period, 1600-1868.
Classification: LCC HQ681 (ebook) | LCC HQ681 .W43 2019 (print) |
DDC 306.850952—dc23
LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2019008998
28 27 26 25 24 23 22 21 20 19
10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1
Contents
Lists of Illustrations and Tables vii
A Note to Readers ix
Introduction 1
Mary Elizabeth Berry and Marcia Yonemoto
PART ONE. NORMS: STEM STRUCTURES AND PRACTICES 21
1. The Language and Contours of Familial Obligation in Fifteenth- and
Sixteenth-Century Japan 23
David Spafford
2. Adoption and the Maintenance of the Early Modern Elite: Japan
in the East Asian Context 47
Marcia Yonemoto
3. Imagined Communities of the Living and the Dead: The Spread of the
Ancestor-Venerating Stem Family in Tokugawa Japan 68
Fabian Drixler
4. Name and Fame: Material Objects as Authority, Security, and Legacy 109
Morgan Pitelka
5. Outcastes and Ie : The Case of Two Beggar Boss Associations 126
Maren Ehlers
v
vi Contents
PART TWO. CASE STUDIES: STEM ADAPTATIONS AND THREATS 147
6. Governing the Samurai Family in the Late Edo Period 149
Luke Roberts
7. Fashioning the Family: A Temple, a Daughter, and a Wardrobe 174
Amy Stanley
8. Social Norms versus Individual Desire: Conventions and
Unconventionality in the History of Hirata Atsutane’s Family 195
Anne Walthall
9. Family Trouble: Views from the Stage and a Merchant Archive 217
Mary Elizabeth Berry
10. Ideal Families in Crisis: Official and Fictional Archetypes at the
Turn of the Nineteenth Century 239
David Atherton
Appendix Suggestions for Further Reading 261
Contributors 267
Index 269
ILLUSTRATIONS AND TABLES
ILLUSTRATIONS
3.1 Joint families and umbrella households in the villages of eastern Honshu,
1675–1699 and 1850–1872 74
3.2 The changing balance of household types in Sendai domain 76
3.3 The decline of joint families and umbrella households in eastern
Honshu 77
3.4 The rise of the stem family in eastern Honshu 78
3.5 Japan-wide trends in tombstone dedications for commoners, 1500–1869 83
3.6 Regional trends in tombstone dedications, 1500–1869 84
3.7 The decline of split temple affiliations in eight villages in which they were
especially common 87
3.8 Name inheritance in four villages in the Yamagata basin (Northeastern
Japan) and two in Settsu Province (Kansai) 88
3.9 Married adopted sons in two parts of eastern Honshu, 1660–1869 90
3.10 Household continuity in the village of Niita in Nihonmatsu, 1720–1870 91
3.11 Timeline of the diffusion of various indicators of devotion to the stem
household 93
3.12 Men aged 20–49 per household in 1880, by district and city 94
6.1 I nterior of the Teshima house viewed from the front, showing two low
doorways (right and left) separating the back from the front of the house 153
6.2 The gravestone Fukuoka Shō and Fukuoka Yūji viewed from the side
and the front 166
vii
