Haruko's World: A Japanese Farm Woman and Her Community [Paperback]

Gail Bernstein (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: June 1, 1983

In Japan as in the United States, family farming is on the wane, increasingly rejected by the younger generation in favor of more promising economic pursuits and more sophisticated comforts. Yet for centuries past, the village and the family farm have constituted the world of the vast majority of Japanese women, as of Japanese men. The dramatic economic and demographic developments of the past two decades have orced extensive changes in the lives of Japanese farm women, many of hwom have been left virtually in charge of their family farms.

This book is a study of Japanese farm women’s lives in the present era: its central figure is 42-year-old Haruko, a complex, vibrant woman who both exemplifies and makes a mockery of the stereotype of Japanese women. Through Haruko we learn the work routine, family relationships, and social life of the women who are the mainstay of Japanese agriculture. Other women from Haruko’s village also figure in the story, and the author’s observations of them, based largely on a six-month stay with Haruko and her family in 1974-75, are supplemented with data from questionnaires and personal interviews.

An epilogue recounts the author’s return to Haruko’s village in 1982 and describes the changes that have occurred since 1975 in the lives of Haruko’s family and other village women. The book is illustrated with photographs.

Editorial Reviews

From the Inside Flap

In Japan as in the United States, family farming is on the wane, increasingly rejected by the younger generation in favor of more promising economic pursuits and more sophisticated comforts. Yet for centuries past, the village and the family farm have constituted the world of the vast majority of Japanese women, as of Japanese men. The dramatic economic and demographic developments of the past two decades have orced extensive changes in the lives of Japanese farm women, many of hwom have been left virtually in charge of their family farms.
This book is a study of Japanese farm women’s lives in the present era: its central figure is 42-year-old Haruko, a complex, vibrant woman who both exemplifies and makes a mockery of the stereotype of Japanese women. Through Haruko we learn the work routine, family relationships, and social life of the women who are the mainstay of Japanese agriculture. Other women from Haruko’s village also figure in the story, and the author’s observations of them, based largely on a six-month stay with Haruko and her family in 1974-75, are supplemented with data from questionnaires and personal interviews.
An epilogue recounts the author’s return to Haruko’s village in 1982 and describes the changes that have occurred since 1975 in the lives of Haruko’s family and other village women. The book is illustrated with photographs.

Product Details

• Paperback: 244 pages
• Publisher: Stanford University Press (June 1, 1983)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0804712875
• ISBN-13: 978-0804712873
• Product Dimensions: 8.4 x 5.5 x 0.5 inches
• Shipping Weight: 9.3 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (6 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #118,061 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Excellent Non-Fiction. As Interesting as the Best Fiction!, November 13, 2002

By 

muramakim (Tucson, Arizona USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Haruko's World: A Japanese Farm Woman and Her Community (Paperback)

In the early 1970s, Professor Gail Lee Bernstein lived with a rural farming family on Shikoku Island, Japan. There, she recorded the actions, words, thoughts, ideas, and struggles of her host family. As she overcame the initial resistance of her host family, and then eventually, that of the community in which she lived, Dr. Bernstein was exposed to a life that few foreigners have ever had a chance to write about.

Haruko (the matron of Bernstein's host family) helped, at and the same times, hindered, the ability of the author to record a true snapshot of the community. Of greatest importance was the interactions between several generations of the villiage's resident women.

A must read for students of Japanese History and/or Cultural Anthropology, and a great-if-read if you're anyone else.

4 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A must read, August 10, 2000

By 

Janice (Arlington, VA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Haruko's World: A Japanese Farm Woman and Her Community (Paperback)

I think this is a good book for anyone who would like to know more about the Japanese families, and their culture. The writer went to Japan in the 80s and lived with a Japanese family and through them, she wrote this book. It deals especially with the relationship between a mother and her husband and children. The mother assumed the more traditional role of Asian women as she took care of everything and everyone in the household.

Besides that, most of the time, when we think of Japan, we usually have in mind, skyscrappers, the hectic life....but this book deals with the agriculture side of Japan.

It is a must read book as the author did a fantasic job of describing life in Japan as a foreigner, and the interaction she had with the villagers who had never or seldom met a foreigner.

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Haruko's World, January 30, 2006

By 

Anya P. Royce (Bloomington, IN) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Haruko's World: A Japanese Farm Woman and Her Community (Paperback)

Haruko's World is an excellent ethnographic treatment of the life of a rice-farming family on Shikoku, the smallest of Japan's four islands. Gail Bernstein gives us a compellingly human portrait of a rural family, especially of Haruko, the wife. The book is based on Bernstein's field research in 1974-1975, with an epilogue that is written after her return visit in 1982, and again in 1995. The reader gains an intimate understanding of rural life through the story of this hardworking, observant, and lively woman. Along the way, we also see how ethnographer and hosts come to understand each other. A wonderful book.