Late 19th Sentury Japan

With the coming of the west and the eventual modernization of Japan, many social norms changed according to the west. In past times, formal and everyday dress was a kimono of varying niceness, depending on many variables. During the Meiji restoration, the dress changes to western formal dress, which is a suit and tie, or for the emperor and his court, Prussian military outfits. This change is in the forefront of Rough Living, Oshima’s eventual dream is to be a successful tailor with a “shop facing the main street in broad daylight” (Shusei, 138). Along with the new dress habits the structure of the army was changed as well. The new army was no longer to be dependant upon the daimyo and the samurai class, but ins

In “Rough Living”, we see the effects of the Meiji Restoration, both good and bad. Modernization was the goal of the project, and it was achieved, however, in doing so, the social, economic and political face of Japan was altered irreversibly.

With the move of the capitol from Edo to Tokyo and the boom in industrialization many cities grew very large very quickly In Japan. As with past booms in industrialization, much of the population flocks to the cities. The people that move to the cities see them as a place where anything can happen, where the streets are “lined with gold”. We see this in Oshima’s view of the city of Tokyo. She associates success with having a shop facing Main Street, and refuses to have her family visit until they reach that perceived level of success. The view of the opportunity that the bigger cities provide is very similar to all other industrial revolutions across the globe, this one just came a little later than the others. Since much of the population is flocking to the cities, the population in the provinces decreases. W

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