Relay Column: Imagining Modern Japan Through the Act of Sewing (Kazuho Maeda)

When I was asked to write a column on the theme of "Fashion and Technology," I was honestly quite perplexed. Unlike the others who have contributed to this relay column, I have spent my research life largely disconnected from both fashion and technology. Until now, my research has focused on the history of urban environmental policies (specifically, urban park policies) to understand modern Japanese families, welfare, and social issues. By studying the origins of places, objects, and systems, I have contemplated the lives of ordinary people behind them.

This time, I would like to introduce research that also approaches fashion and technology in a similar manner, thereby passing the baton to the next contributor. I will proceed with writing this column on what is, for me, a challenging theme, using American historian Andrew Gordon's "Fabricating Consumers: The Sewing Machine in Modern Japan" (2012=2013) as my starting point.

The Sewing Machine & Modern Japan

In "The Sewing Machine in Modern Japan," Gordon outlines the arrival, commercialization, dissemination, and eventual decline against ready-made clothing of the sewing machine over about a century in modern Japan. Among the many topics Gordon discusses are the advancements in mass production and consumption surrounding the sewing machine, the formation of modern consumers, the conflict between kimono and Western clothing, the proliferation of Western clothing and industrialization of garment production, labor disputes initiated by Japanese workers against American corporate management, and the independence of Japanese sewing machine companies (JANOME Corporation).