{"resolved":true,"match_type":"uuid","source_type":"original_book","book_id":"1dc0854c-957b-4fb1-af9a-bb4fdb76b77e","title":"Time, Consumption and Everyday Life Practice, Materiality and Culture","author":null,"edition":null,"publisher":null,"year":null,"isbn":null,"requested_by":"printed_page","book":{"source_type":"original_book","book_id":"1dc0854c-957b-4fb1-af9a-bb4fdb76b77e","id":"1dc0854c-957b-4fb1-af9a-bb4fdb76b77e","uuid":"1dc0854c-957b-4fb1-af9a-bb4fdb76b77e","title":"Time, Consumption and Everyday Life Practice, Materiality and Culture","normalized_title":"timeconsumptionandeverydaylifepracticematerialityandculture","author":null,"edition":null,"publisher":null,"year":null,"isbn":null,"isbns":[],"parsed":true,"ai_readable":true,"document_type":"book","page_count":236,"navigation_url":"https://workshop.closeclaw.top/ai/book/1dc0854c-957b-4fb1-af9a-bb4fdb76b77e","title_url":"https://workshop.closeclaw.top/ai/title/Time%2C%20Consumption%20and%20Everyday%20Life%20Practice%2C%20Materiality%20and%20Culture","fixed_page_url_template":"https://workshop.closeclaw.top/ai/book/1dc0854c-957b-4fb1-af9a-bb4fdb76b77e/page/{printed_page}","path_api_url_template":"https://workshop.closeclaw.top/api/ai/book/1dc0854c-957b-4fb1-af9a-bb4fdb76b77e/page/{printed_page}","read_url":"https://workshop.closeclaw.top/api/ai/read/1dc0854c-957b-4fb1-af9a-bb4fdb76b77e","page_url":"https://workshop.closeclaw.top/api/ai/books/1dc0854c-957b-4fb1-af9a-bb4fdb76b77e/page","search_url":"https://workshop.closeclaw.top/api/ai/books/1dc0854c-957b-4fb1-af9a-bb4fdb76b77e/search"},"page":{"printed_page":182,"pdf_page":181,"physical_index":181,"physical_index_base":0,"printed_page_status":"recognized","page_sha256":"24ffabbf481b1dc2e2e77a6faeee09cfb760ecd009c97be115c0080596d9dff8"},"chapter":"List of Tables and Figures","content":"Despite these changes, kagami-mochi continue to be popular. During the last week of December 2002 large quantities were sold in a variety of sizes in department shops, supermarkets and local stores in the Kansai region. However, a particular kagami-mochi produced by the Sato Company, advertised in all leaflets collected, demonstrates how Japanese businesses actively create new ‘festive products’ in tune with changing consumer practices. Although at first glance this product looked identical to the offering I described above, it actually is a plastic replica. The genius of the product lies in the fact it is sold with a smaller edible rice cake that can be placed inside the mock-up. This enables consumers to display an elaborate offering without actually having to eat the large rice cakes. The price varies according to the size of the real rice cake inside: the smallest cake weighs only 132 gramme and costs 498 yen (about £2.50), while the largest 1980 gramme cake sells for 3.888 yen (about £18). An additional design feature is that the product is wrapped in a large box that can be transformed into the shape of a traditional serving tray for offerings, while additional pieces of paper can be draped over the box in order to re-create some of the auspicious elements of the original display.\n\nCommercial Rhythms of Domestic Consumption\n\n[S]easonal change forms a rhythm which is continually articulated and actively staged on the market, rather than one to which the market merely responds.\n\nMoeran and Skov 1997: 199\n\nThe above discussion about the Japanese New Year discloses how Japanese businesses have adapted to social and economic factors that have had a major effect on the yearly ritual cycle. However, the examples also demonstrate that the market actively articulates and stages seasonal consumption rhythms. This is evident in the creation of innovative products but also in the fact that businesses have been the driving force behind the invention of a number of new ‘annual events’. Famous examples are Christmas and Valentine’s Day, so-called ‘Western’ traditions that were re-invented by Japanese sweet companies. In Japan Christmas is associated with giving presents to small children, but even more so with love and romance between unmarried couples (see Moeran and Skov 1993). Christmas Day 2002 was spend by those in my sample in their late teens and twenties with boy/girlfriends, while families, many of whom had decorated the entrance to their home with a Christmas wreath, celebrated with consuming a Christmas Keiki, a strawberry sponge cake covered with whipped cream. Kimura reveals that these cakes were first produced by the Japanese sweet company Fujiya during the 1910s, but their consumption only became widespread during the 1960s (Kimura 2001: 104–140).\n\n182\n\nInge Daniels","previous_page":181,"next_page":183}