Yuko Minowa

Social Change and Gendered Gift-Giving Rituals: A Historical Analysis of Valentine’s Day in Japan

Valentine’s Day is a culturally hybridized and popularly celebrated consumption ritual in Japan. We examine its historical transformation based on a visual and textual analysis of advertisements in print media over fifty years. Changes in the meanings, functions, and structure of gift-giving rituals correspond to changes in the national economy, social values, consumer ideology, and gender roles and power relationships in Japanese society. There are five major findings: one, the importance of food—chocolate—in the creolization process of the consumer ritual; two, the persistent gender asymmetric nature of the Valentines consumer holiday; three, the ritual’s structural aspects and changes over the time; four, the importance of confession in the ritual process; and five, the transformation of its role from a simple instrument of love and a way to elevate a relationship to a rite to reconfirm gender identity. This study supplements the very limited literature on Japanese gift-giving rituals.

Public Markets: An Ecological Perspective on Sustainability as a Megatrend

Although today’s public markets echo ancient market forms, they incorporate many original aspects which merit scrutiny because: 1) they are connected to a dominant neo-liberal market functioning and structures; and 2) they illuminate important tensions that question how sustainability is practicable at a macro level. Taking an ecological perspective, we show that public markets bring certain benefits in relation to sustainability. Significantly, however, we illustrate how these perceived benefits are underpinned by three compromises or “trade-offs” that public markets also invoke and that operate at inter-social, inter-nation, and inter-gender levels. We argue that what may look sustainable on a local level can raise challenges to macro sustainability more broadly conceived. Our contribution is twofold. First, we offer an updated, comprehensive definition of public markets and discuss to what extent they may represent a megatrend. Second, we contribute to the literature on sustainability by conceptualizing the notion of ecological sustainability, which suggests that an overarching analysis of sustainability reveals possible internal trade-offs between its economic, social, environmental, and ethical constituents, which the case of public markets helps highlight

State promotion of consumerism in Safavid Iran: Shah Abbas I and royal silk textiles

Purpose – This purpose of this paper is to investigate the policies and consequences of state‐directed consumerism in Iran during the reign of Shah Abbas I (1587–1629) of the Safavid dynasty.Design/methodology/approach – The research is based upon several secondary literatures, especially Middle Eastern studies and art history, as well as primary source materials in the form of architecture, its decorative elements, and other works. The visual content and consumption themes of a selected tile painting are described and analyzed.Findings – The Shah strengthened the state by building infrastructure, encouraging international trade, and creating a robust silk industry where he controlled production and marketing. He utilized his city and its architecture as a means of communication to impress his subjects and foreign visitors and to increase domestic demand for silk textiles. These promotional efforts led to a surge in spending, which occurred about the same time as similar booms in England and France. Econo...

Hiraga Gennai: The Renaissance marketer of eighteenth-century Japan

Purpose – This paper aims to examine a copy Hiraga Gennai wrote advertising the toothpowder brand Sosekiko in terms of its target audience, product decisions pertaining to branding and packaging, pricing and advertising objectives and message appeals. A masterless samurai in the eighteenth century, Hiraga Gennai is considered Japan’s first advertising copywriter. Life of the versatile Renaissance man Gennai and the influences of his accomplishments on advertising in following generations are briefly discussed. Design/methodology/approach – The research draws from a sampling of classical and contemporary literature as well as the interpretation of the images shown here. Visual content is described and analyzed as well. Findings – Gennai’s witty and humorous advertising copy for handbills attracted the townspeople of Edo. The toothpowder market was mature and competitive, and Gennai’s copy emphasized differentiation through packaging and volume discount rather than ingredients. The advertising copy has culturally unique aspect: It appeals to the audience’s ninjo, or feelings of humanity, and explicitly solicited disseminating positive word-of-mouth by the audience. Originality/value – This research shows that activities resembling more contemporary marketing practices, such as advertising and branding, for consumer products such as toothpowder existed in eighteenth-century Japan, more than a century prior to the paradigmatic development of marketing concept. The possibility for Gennai as a potential strategic marketing planner and implementer, in addition to advertising copywriter, is researched and analyzed.

Practicing Qi and consuming Ki: Folk epistemology and consumption rituals in Japan

Folk epistemology is a study of the commonsense knowledge and internalized beliefs of ordinary people. This paper discusses consumer knowledge in the context of consumption rituals in Japan. Studying the development of local knowledge is imperative in consumer research, despite accelerating globalization, because knowledge and reasoning cannot be separated from the history in which they are embedded. Prior research tended to treat knowledge projects and consumption rituals as sequential conceptions. The purpose of this study is to propose a model of transcendental consumption rituals, underpinned by cultural pragmatics and ontological liquidity. The proposed model entails a holistic approach to consumer rituals, synthesizing both synchronic and diachronic aspects of the rituals. Metaphors in language and tacit knowledge influence folk epistemology of consumption rituals. Ontological viscosity and the spiritual center of gravity are proposed to better explain the dynamism of consumer rituals in a relatively monolithic culture.

Spectator consumption practices at the Roman games

Purpose – This study seeks to further understanding of spectator consumption practices by applying modern consumer theory in a much different historical context: the gladiator games during the time of the Roman Empire. The objective is to validate modern ideas of consumption practices with evidence from the past.Design/methodology/approach – The research draws from a sampling of classical and contemporary literatures as well as the interpretation of the images and inscriptions delineated on archaeological artifacts such as relief sculptures on sarcophagi, floor mosaics, fresco paintings, and terracotta and glass lamps. The visual content and consumption themes of selected objects are described and analyzed.Findings – Spectators at the Roman games used these events for the sake of the experience, for integrating themselves into their community, for classifying themselves in a certain group category, and for interacting and socializing with other people. As in modern sporting events, consuming the Roman gam...

Ad hoc Japonisme: how national identity rhetorics work in Japanese advertising

ABSTRACT This study examines how a variety of national identity rhetorics are formed with the nuanced aestheticization. We focus on visual rhetorics. We use advertisements for traditional, seasonal gifts in post-postwar Japan as the context of inquiry. Two research questions addressed are: (1) how different rhetorics of national identity are formed between the gifts advertised and the audience, focusing more on visual than merely verbal elements, and (2) how visual genealogy – specific cultural and historical references in contemporary images – is used in rhetorical figures. Underpinned by a critical visual analysis, we apply Western and Japanese art canons to a visual social semiotic approach in order to interpret variations in the semantics of national identity. We discuss three types of rhetorics of national identity: rhe-transfiguration, rhe-truculence, and rhe-trepidation. The study suggests that national identity rhetorics activate a “deep subjectivity” resulting from the aestheticized experience reinforced by the nation’s consumption ritual.

Optimal Pricing Strategies for Primary and Contingent Products under Duopoly Environment

The purpose of the current paper is to study optimal pricing policies for duopoly firms that introduce two new related products: a primary and a nondurable captive contingent product. The use of the former requires the latter product, and the diffusion and the sales of the latter are contingent upon the diffusion of the former. The competition is modelled as a differential game and the solutions are derived as open-loop Nash equilibria. The results of our analysis show that the prices of the contingency product are constant, determined by constant cost, shadow price and own- and cross-elasticities. On the other hand, the price trajectories of the primary product are characterized by such parameters as the directionality of the diffusion effect of the primary product, the magnitude of the coefficient of the repeat purchase of the contingent product and the convexity or concavity of the cumulative adoption of the primary product with respect to time.

Gifts and Nationalism in Wartime Japan

This study investigates the shifting discourse and visual rhetoric of consumer rituals in the cultural media during wartime. Specifically, we examine Japanese newspaper advertisements for seasonal gifts and sympathy gifts in urban cities published between 1937 and 1940. This research addresses two questions: (1) how were advertising arguments constructed justifying spending for gifts while instructing readers on being thrifty during the wartime material shortages, and (2) how was the consumer ritual practice of gift giving used to propagate nationalism? The results of our iconographic-semiotic analysis show four advertising themes: compatibility with national policy, timeliness under the wartime circumstances, empathy with families whose members were serving at the front, and sympathy with those serving at the front. The advertisements enhanced nationalism in two ways: (1) through the promotion of nationalistic gift giving, and (2) by appealing to patriotism, which involves emotionally laden nationalistic sentiments.

Visual Representations of Violent Women

Visual representations of violent women provoke a range of gender issues in contemporary consumer culture. The present study offers a critical visual analysis of violent women. Specifically, we examine the French Connection United Kingdom (FCUK) ad Fashion versus Style, the Quentin Tarantino film Kill Bill, and one of the Sisley ads. We discuss how violent women have been portrayed historically and how contemporary images are expressed in an art historical framework. Violent women in popular culture are often glamorized, trivialized, and sanitized. Their violence is desensitized and disinhibited, and it creates empowering images of women. It is argued, however, that images of violent women are constructed to signify an artificially masculinized female predator and a superficial marker of power transformation.