- 著者
-
阪井 裕一郎
- 出版者
- 社会学研究会
- 雑誌
- ソシオロジ (ISSN:05841380)
- 巻号頁・発行日
- vol.54, no.2, pp.89-105,177, 2009-10-31 (Released:2015-05-20)
- 参考文献数
- 42
- 被引用文献数
-
1
The purpose of this paper is to consider the process whereby marriage, arranged by nakoudo (go-betweens), was institutionalized during the Meiji period. The subject of countless articles, this marital pattern has characterized Japanese marriage. However, it was not “Japanese tradition” but “Samurai tradition.” While Western modernization resulted in the individualization and secularization of marriage, Japanese early modernization institutionalized, paradoxically, arranged marriage based on familism. This marital pattern then began to gain wide acceptance as a “legitimate marital pattern” among the general population. Few studies have addressed the institutionalization process of arranged marriage and go-betweens during the course of modernization. However, it is essential to study the process because there was a strong social norm: marriage without a go-between was not “correct marriage” and love marriages had been sanctioned long since the Meiji era. Given that the Civil Code in Meiji did not prescribe the use of go-betweens, we need to focus rather on ideology, because this norm seemed to be widespread, not by laws but through the press, education and morals. By examining the ideological conflict between Individualism and Familism, discourses of “civilization” by intellectuals, nakoudo marriage as an “invention of tradition,” and nakoudo as respectable or desirable, this paper shows that arranged marriage did not always confront the idea of “liberty” or “love” but was institutionalized in parallel with the popularization of love (marriage). Nakoudo marriage was a marital pattern that overcame contradictions between Familism and Individualism. The nakoudo, rather than restraining individual will or love, functioned as a symbol of the social approval oflove.