Consumer Consumption for Children: Conceptions of Childhood in the Work of Taishō-Period Designers

This chapter, by Jinno Yuki, explores how the Taishō period saw a new culture of consumer consumption in urban Japan, one that situated modernity in the world of children. Even adults collected toys, hoping to reclaim a childlike innocence, and Japan began the mass production of toys, with the United States as its child export market. Magazines, books, and expositions gave primacy to a child-based family culture over school education and taught women that they were responsible for rearing the child. Designers Kogure Joichi and Moritani Nobuo tried to reform the family and promote lifestyle improvement through initiatives such as establishing a separate room for children in order to respect their individuality and privacy and furnishing the room with child-appropriate furniture and interior decorations similar to those found in the West.