Traditional Industry and Community Life Structure a case of Nishijin district in Kyoto

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Nishijin,a district of traditional industry in Kyoto, is one of the biggest districts producing Japanese clothes. However, production in Nishijin has been falling. This situation has been called "Kudoka"(depletion,erosion) in Japanese. Our main theme was to study how social life in this district has been changing.The textile trade in Nishijin, which is managed by the "Intensive Labor Home Industry" of the district, has been stimulating work specialization of the several functions of cloth production. This is the resaon why they say that that the whole town is a single factory. This social character has been sustained. It is influenced by the rural as well as the urban industrial situation. However, the "Kuboka" in Nishijin, which is often referred to as the Nishijin Community (Nishijin-Village). Some of the researchers of Nishijin described the neighborhood relations in thsis district as a "community of GIRI" (formal duty or obligation), but we do not consider it so, even if, human felations have changed a lot in Japan after World War II.It is true that the differentiation of the social strata of textile menufacturers has proceeded and that employment of the workers is very unstable, but, according th our research, people in Nishijin continue to find a positive meaning in neighborhood life of this district.