著者
伊東 久智
出版者
ジェンダー史学会
雑誌
ジェンダー史学 (ISSN:18804357)
巻号頁・発行日
vol.15, pp.5-18, 2019-10-20 (Released:2020-11-21)
参考文献数
28

This paper focuses on the “cultural cradle” that gave rise to a distinctive idea of masculinity and counter-culture as seen in records of day laborers’ own monologues preserved in a collection of workers’ diaries. The main material for the paper comes from the ‘Diaries of day laborers’ (total of two volumes) collected and compiled by the Bureau of Social Affairs of the city of Tokyo in the early Showa period. As for the masculinity of day laborers, the peculiar “expression” style was symbolized in discourses on “drinking, gambling, and prostitution.” On the other hand, in order to grasp the day laborers’ expressions of masculinity in relation to the totality of masculinity, this paper focuses the discussion on the “cultural cradle” = various elements that promoted these “expressions”. Concretely, this paper examines (1) the actual conditions of daily laborers and their consciousness, (2) their awareness of “others”, and (3) the forms of entertainment and culture favored by day laborers, correlating the various factors.The results can be summarized in the following three points. First, what formed the “cultural cradle” of the masculinity and counter-culture of day laborers was the ambivalent consciousness of “frightened” and “resentment” leading to an inverted form — “frightened masculinity (frightened but masculine)”. This consciousness was formed during the depression years and in “not sociable” relationships with “others” such as intermediate contractors, Korean laborers and women. Second, the appeal of this counter-culture was not constant. We can see this in the fact that there were a significant number of day laborers with academic backgrounds who tried to stand outside of the counter-culture as well as the Korean laborers who also stood outside of this counter-culture. Third, the “cultural cradle” of their masculinity was amplified or eliminated in the context of femininity. This can be clearly seen from their reactionary remarks against “Modern girls” and the reality of a form of “sociable” entertainment called “Yasugi-bushi” which was popular among day laborers.