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

1.超市的兴起与传统商业区的挣扎与衰落从上世纪50年代后半期开始，总部设在东京和大阪的超市纷纷涌向四国地区，抢走了传统商业区的大部分顾客。以高知市中村市为例，根据调查数据发现，市中心的商店最初合作反击，开了一家自己经营的超市，但结果是，它们注定要在全国性连锁超市的力量下消失。其他地方的小城镇也是如此。超市与民俗文化的变迁在那个年代，人们习惯于认为总部设在大都市的超市的商品是“城市的”，而本地商店的商品是“农村的”，他们更喜欢购买“城市的”商品。因此，“都市”烙印在超市的商品上，渗透到四国地区的每一个角落。人们熟悉了“彬彬有礼”，尤其是刻在儿童休闲食品上的那句话。“城市”通过各种生活方式的历法仪式，如孩子的生日、季节性节日等，逐渐渗透到农村生活中。此外，母亲在选择孩子的食物和衣服方面开始“城市化”。综上所述，战后消费社会的形成始于儿童生活方式的改变，继而影响了他们的母亲和父亲的生活方式。在这一过程中，传统民俗文化发生了根本性的转变。当我们考虑到我们当代的高消费文化时，这是很有启发性的。

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.