Since its early days of mass production in the 1850s, the sewing machine has been intricately connected with the global development of capitalism. This book traces the machine's remarkable journey into and throughout Japan, where it not only transformed manners of dress, but also helped change patterns of daily life, class structure, and the role of women. As it explores the selling, buying, and use of the sewing machine in the early to mid-twentieth century, the book finds that its history is a lens through which we can examine the modern transformation of daily life in Japan. Both as a tool ... More
Keywords: mass production, sewing machine, Japan, capitalism, class structure, role of women, daily life, tool of production, consumer desire, Japanese modernity
| Print publication date: 2011 | Print ISBN-13: 9780520267855 |
| Published to California Scholarship Online: May 2012 | DOI:10.1525/california/9780520267855.001.0001 |
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