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interrupted the unity between the place of work and the place of residence
for an increasing number of Japanese. The ideology of domesticity, in turn,
led to the emergence of the new profession of ‘housewife’ (shufu).
The word shufu was not commonly used in Japan before the 1880s.
It literally bears the meaning ‘mistress (of the house)’, but gradually,
embraced by the rhetoric of domesticity, shufu became an independent
label, ‘reflecting its transformation from a status designation within a
household to a universal occupational category’. 10 The emergence of a
professional housewife was crucial for the transition of the Japanese
domestic space, since she would be the one who defined its every detail,
including the character and content of the home meals. ‘No part of the
house ’ – Sand explains – ‘was more heavily invested with importance in
the texts of the new profession than the kitchen, for it was here that the
modern shufu was to establish herself as an expert.’ 11 Infrastructural
improvements such as electricity, piped water and gas fundamentally
transformed domestic labour. Equipped with technological innovations
and new knowledge with which to handle them, the ‘good wife, wise
mother’ was then dressed in a white apron to complete the transformation
into a professional housewife. The apron reflected the professionalism of
her future role as a scientist of the modern home, with the kitchen serving
as her ‘laboratory’. 12
‘Reform of the Home Begins with the Kitchen Equipment’,a poster from the Industrial
Hygiene Exhibition of 1924.
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