Molding of a Rite of Passage in Urban Japan: Historical and Anthropological Perspectives

Abstract

This article focuses on the Japanese childhood ritual of Shichigosan and its changes over the last two centuries. The transformation of Japanese society has affected traditional customs to a great extent, including rites of passage. Social and economic processes such as urbanization, the rise of a consumer lifestyle and the proliferation of commercial services influenced the shifting trends regarding the ritual that constitutes the case study of this article. Evidence of commercialization of the celebration and the presence of consumption are often categorized as negative indicators, implying a potential loss of ‘authenticity’. The discussion attempts to reinterpret the role of consumption practices, arguing that these can be viewed in more positive terms and indeed have a legitimate place within the creation of a ritual experience in modern urban contexts.

Cite this work

No public copy is stored for this record, so only the metadata is cited.

Stored only when both papers are in the corpus — 5 citations exist upstream.

Papers that cite the same references — the relational fallback while embeddings are still backfilling.