Culture, Community and Change in a Sapporo Neighborhood, 1925-1988 Hanayama

Author:	Mock, John
Year:	1999
Pages:	248
ISBN:	0-7734-7974-0 978-0-7734-7974-6
Price:	$179.95

This is the first explicitly Hokkaido ethnography written in English. English-language material on Hokkaido is very rare. It is a detailed historical study of the social relationships in a relatively small area, a micro-study, and the adaptation to the changing urban environment is drawn out in detail. Using a variation of a modern world system approach, the analysis examines the historical connections and adaptations of the neighborhood dealing with external forces from the larger city, from the prefecture, from the nation and even from the international arenThis is the first explicitly Hokkaido ethnography written in English. English-language material on Hokkaido is very rare. It is a detailed historical study of the social relationships in a relatively small area, a micro-study, and the adaptation to the changing urban environment is drawn out in detail. Using a variation of a modern world system approach, the analysis examines the historical connections and adaptations of the neighborhood dealing with external forces from the larger city, from the prefecture, from the nation and even from the international arena.

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Reviews

Compared to other parts of Japan, Hokkaido has enjoyed only limited attention by anthropologists and other scholars interested in Japanese culture and society. This book provides an important contribution to the study of Japan by providing the most detailed account of life in Hokkaido to date. . . . There is an enormous wealth of historical and demographic data in this book but Mock makes his most important contribution in the final chapter when he explores the issue of changing values in Japan. . . .This book is very well organized conceptually and clearly written, making it easy for the reader to follow the historical developments Mock describes and the theoretical framework through which he explains what he finds. While the book is important in terms of its contribution to Japanese studies, it also has more general value as a significant entry into the growing field of demographic anthropology. . . . . it provides a fresh starting point in developing ways of thinking about demographic and social change in Japanese society. . . . . a superb example of how anthropology, history, and demography can be integrated. Mock has given us an enjoyable and extremely useful text that both expands and refines our understanding of social change and continuity in Japan.” – John Traphagan, Population Studies Center, University of Michigan

Table of Contents:
1. Despite the natural division of the country . . . unity and homogeneity characterize the Japanese
2. Physical and Historical context: Japan and Hokkaido until 1925
3. Phase I: 1925-1945
4. Phase II: 1945-1965
5. Phase III: 1965-1988
6. Constraints and Continuity: Patterns of Social Change