Apart from ethnographic data, I will also draw on promotional leaflets (chirashi) that are produced by local businesses, ranging from high-quality department stores to local supermarkets and convenient stores, and are distributed by post on a weekly basis. Five people participating in my study agreed to collect these leaflets during one year from November 2002 until October 2003. Most chirashi advertise the latest food bargains, but they also promote a variety of other goods such as furniture, houses, Chinese medicine and gravestones. Whereas Moeran and Skov (1997) argue that the advertisements they studied, published in magazines or displayed on billboards nation-wide, did not reflect actual changes of seasons, my analysis of the collected leaflets reveals, by contrast, that local businesses cleverly synchronize their sales of specific goods with seasonal rhythms. The purchase of a number of raw foods such as bamboo shoots, mushrooms and oysters continues to be seasonal. However, in this chapter I am concerned with so-called ‘festive commodities’, food and decorations, used in domestic celebrations that are part of the yearly ritual cycle. These goods are advertised in weekly pamphlets, but they are also promoted in elaborate displays erected in commercial sites. The life cycles of these commodities and the rhythms of promotion and innovation are cleverly interwoven with the everyday rhythms of shopping.
A Uniquely Japanese Sense of Seasonality?
Anyone who spends a considerable amount of time in Japan will at some point be confronted with the statement that the Japanese have a unique, harmonious relationship with nature that comes to the fore in their sensibility to the four seasons. Throughout this chapter I aim to unpack and challenge many components at the base of this essentialist assumption. However, even the most sceptical of observers must admit that at first sight the Japanese seem to be more aware of – or at least more interested in – the changing rhythms of nature than other industrialized nations. The yearly excitement surrounding the first cherry tree blossoms is one highly visible example, but during my ethnography I observed more subtle manifestations of seasonal awareness. In all the urban homes studied, the arrival of seasonal foods such as water melons, mountain vegetables or mandarins, often gifts, caused real excitement and resulted in lively discussions about particular smells and tastes. Moreover, as temperatures rose, clothing, furniture and interior coverings associated with winter were exchanged for their summer counterparts; portable heaters and hot carpets were replaced by fans, rugs and blinds. Moreover, textile objects such as futons, sitting cushions and even slippers made of heavy, warm materials such as wool or felt were substituted for copies made in cotton, rattan or straw.
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Inge Daniels