| 内容 |
Located around the north west area of Kyoto city, Nishijin textile district is known for the production of gorgeous, traditional textiles. Often branded with the image of traditional craftsmanship, the district embraces a history of over a thousand years of weaving. However, despite the authoritative narratives and claims of textile houses being run for centuries by the same families, the reality is rather different from what an outsider would anticipate. Workers in Nishijin, both present and past, have faced societal changes that interrelates with the diversifying patterns of social mobility such as economic fluctuations, change in family values and increase of flexibility in choices of geographical and occupational positioning. This paper uncovers the complex dynamics of social mobility in one of the oldest, traditional textile neighbourhoods in Japan. It also examines how many different factors have influenced the changes social mobility, or immobility, and how concepts of class itself has been changing in the area.
In doing so, it aims to explore how “individualization” (Beck and Beck-Gernsheim, 2002) has affected individuals, family enterprises, Nishijin and the Japanese society. |