The Rise of Supermarket and its Relationship with the Change of Folk Culture at the Postbellum High Economic Growth Period in Japan

1.超市的兴起与传统市中心的衰落自1950年下半年S以来，总部设在东京和大阪的超市纷纷落户四国地区，抢走了市中心传统商店的大部分顾客。例如，根据对中村市高知市的研究数据，人们发现，市中心的商店最初是合作反击，开设了自己经营的超市，但事实证明，它们注定要在全国连锁超市的力量下消亡。其他地方的小城镇也是如此。2.超市与民间文化的变化那时候，人们认为总部设在大都会的超市的商品是“城市”的，当地商店的商品是“农村”的，他们更喜欢购买“城市”的商品。在超市的商品中，“都市性”也因此渗透和定居在四国地区的每一个角落。人们对“都市性”习以为常，尤其是儿童休闲食品中的“都市性”。通过各种生活方式的日历仪式，如儿童生日、季节性节日等，“文雅”逐渐渗透到农村生活中。总而言之，战后消费社会的形成从孩子的生活方式变化出发，进而影响到母亲和父亲的生活方式。在这个过程中，传统民俗文化发生了根本性的转变。当我们思考我们当代的高消费文化时，这是非常有启发性的。

1.The Rise of Supermarket and the Struggle and Eventual Fall of Traditional Downtown AreaSince the second half of 1950's, supermarkets with their headquarters in Tokyo and Osaka have come down to the Shikoku area, and taken away most of the customers of the traditional downtown stores. According to the research data on Nakamura city, Kochi, for instance, it was found that downtown stores had first cooperated to fight back and open a supermarket of their own management but, as it turned out, they were destined to fade away under the power of nationwide supermarket chain. This is the case with other local-small towns, too.2.Supermarkets and the Change of Folk CultureIn those days, people used to think metro-headquartered supermarkets' merchandise to be "urban" and local store goods "rural," and they preferred to purchase "urban" ones. Inscribed in supermarkets' merchandise, thus, "urbanity" encroached and settled into every corner of the Shikoku area.People got familiar with "urbanity," especially the one inscribed in children's snack foods. "Urbanity" seeped gradually into the rural life through various life-style calendrical rituals, such as children's birthday, seasonal festivals, and others. Moreover, mothers came to be "urbanized" in choosing their children's foods and clothes.To take it all together, it follows that the postbellum formation of consumption society set out from children's life-style change, and went on to affect their mothers' and then fathers' way of living. In the course of this process, traditional folk culture underwent a fundamental transformation. This is highly suggestive when we consider our contemporary high-consumption culture.