The middle-class household at the end of the Meiji Period as seen in Natsume Soseki'novel The Gate : Life with a maidservant
Bibliographic Information
- Other Title
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- 夏目漱石の小説『門』にみる明治末期の中流家庭 : 〈下女〉のいる暮らし
- ナツメ ソウセキ ノ ショウセツ 『 モン 』 ニ ミル メイジ マッキ ノ チュウリュウ カテイ : 〈 ゲジョ 〉 ノ イル クラシ
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Abstract
40020539594
This paper examines the home life of an urban middle-class household at the end of the Meiji Period as seen in Natsume Soseki’s full-length novel The Gate (1910). The character Sosuke, who resides in a three-person household with his wife and a gejo (maidservant) in a humble rented house nearly 20 minutes on foot from the final station of a rail line, lives in straitened circumstances. Despite his gloomy thoughts on a rainy day with a hole in the sole of his shoe, he cannot afford to buy new shoes. But why does this household, which is not particularly wealthy, have a live-in maidservant? This was because housework in a middle-class household at the end of the Meiji Period took so much time and effort that a full-time housewife could not complete the task herself. Gas lamps were the source of light, and meals were cooked using a shichirin, a small charcoal stove of clay or earthenware. The novel The Gate answers our question persuasively by depicting household articles and the living space in detail.
Journal
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- 研究紀要
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研究紀要 (16), 61-73, 2015-03-31
関西国際大学
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Details 詳細情報について
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- CRID
- 1050282677780830720
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- NII Article ID
- 120005657422
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- NII Book ID
- AA11544811
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- ISSN
- 13455311
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- NDL BIB ID
- 026617811
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- Text Lang
- ja
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- Article Type
- departmental bulletin paper
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- Data Source
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- IRDB
- NDL
- CiNii Articles