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Precis: "Rationalization and Nostalgia: Cultural Dynamics of New-Middle Class Japan" (1986) by William Kelly

In Kelly’s article, “Rationalization and Nostalgia: Cultural Dynamics of New-Middle Class Japan” (1986), he explores the people of small agricultural lands, such as Shonai, who are caught in a dilemma of development and the past, enforced to remain in an unchanging state in order to provide an ideal of the past for those who are already in the developed urban areas, that even with modern technologies would have to shoulder the responsibilities of ceremonies and of tilling the land, even if only “part-time” by legal category. Yet, this responsibility is carried with a dignified air, and the inclusion of modern technological development in the farming industry had freed the farmer from the constraints of intense labor, only to be captivated by its appeal of efficient and systematic flexible lifestyle, where the farmer of the present is a farcry of the farmer of the past. It is by this sense of fulfilment that the farmer has then refashioned the term of “New Middle Class” of which they are now logically categorized into due to their lifestyle and commitment to their work and society. He also touched upon the idea that cultural roots of multi-households, or in the case of the Kurokawa town, their Nõ organization, is an effective mediator that unifies a smaller community to create an ideal identity that not even political ambitions could deter. In the end, he states that there is an on-going thrill for reliving the past to gain favour of the cultural or societal rewards, but there is always that conscious effort to deny its influence on the present, and the people of Shonai and Kurokawa are continually threading on the fine line that separates them from successfully escaping this machination as they have managed to find their so-called identity.

(October 20, 2015)

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