Shufu no Tomo

Shufu no Tomo
CategoriesWomen's magazine
FrequencyMonthly
PublisherShufu no Tomo Co. Ltd.
FounderIshikawa Takemi
Founded1917
First issueMarch 1917
Final issue2008
CountryJapan
Based inTokyo
LanguageJapanese

Shufu no Tomo (主婦の友, Housewife's Friend) was a Japanese monthly women's magazine based in Tokyo, Japan. The magazine was in circulation between 1917 and 2008.

History and profile

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Shufu no Tomo was launched in 1917,[1][2][3] and the first issue appeared in March 1917.[4] The founding company was Tokyo Kaseikai.[5] Its founder was Ishikawa Takemi.[6] The magazine was published monthly by Shufu no Tomo Co. Ltd. in Tokyo.[7][8] The size of the magazine was A5 until 1956 when it was switched to B5.[9]

Shufu no Tomo had a conservative stance.[10] It addressed young married women during the initial phase.[6] At the same time its target audience was the mass market and lower-middle class women.[3] It covered articles about home management, including savings and birth control.[2] In 2008 Shufu no Tomo ceased publication.[11]

Circulation

Shufu no Tomo had an estimated circulation of 200,000 copies in 1927.[12] In 1931 its monthly circulation was 600,000 copies,[6] and the magazine sold about 8 million copies.[13] In 1952 it was the third best-selling and the third popular magazine in the country.[7][14] Shufu no Tomo was one of four powerful and best-selling women's magazines in Japan in 1958.[15] The other three were Fujin kurabu, Fujin seikatsu and Shufu to seikatsu with a combined circulation of 2,200,000 copies.[15]

References

  1. ^ Keiko Tanaka (1998). "Japanese Women's Magazines. The language of aspiration". In Dolores Martinez (ed.). The Worlds of Japanese Popular Culture: Gender, Shifting Boundaries and Global Cultures. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. p. 110. ISBN 978-0-521-63729-9.
  2. ^ a b Takeda Hiroko (2004). The Political Economy of Reproduction in Japan. London; New York: Routledge Curzon. p. 55. ISBN 978-1-134-35543-3.
  3. ^ a b Takeda Hiroko (2005). "Governance through the Family". In Glenn D. Hook (ed.). Contested Governance in Japan: Sites and Issues. London; New York: Routledge Curzon. p. 237. ISBN 978-0-415-36498-0.
  4. ^ Sarah Anne Frederick (2000). Housewives, modern girls, feminists: Women's magazines and modernity in Japan (PhD thesis). University of Chicago. p. 113. ISBN 978-0-599-97544-6. ProQuest 304639224.
  5. ^ Ai Maeda (2004). Text and the City: Essays on Japanese Modernity. Durham, NC; London: Duke University Press. p. 167. ISBN 0-8223-8562-7.
  6. ^ a b c Barbara Sato (2003). The New Japanese Woman: Modernity, Media, and Women in Interwar Japan. Durham, NC; London: Duke University Press. p. 94. ISBN 0-8223-8476-0.
  7. ^ a b Emiko Ochiai (1998). "Decent Housewives and Sensual White Women: Representations of Women in Postwar Japanese Magazines". In Edward R. Beauchamp (ed.). Women and Women's Issues in Post World War II Japan. New York; London: Garland Publishing Inc. p. 206. ISBN 978-0-8153-2731-8.
  8. ^ "Company Overview of Shufu no Tomo Co. Ltd". Bloomberg News. Retrieved 17 September 2016.
  9. ^ Natsuko Y. Furuya (July 1962). "Postwar Publishing Trends in Japan". The Library Quarterly. 32 (3): 219–220. doi:10.1086/619018. S2CID 148089534.
  10. ^ Sharon Kinsella (2013). Schoolgirls, Money and Rebellion in Japan. London; New York: Routledge. p. 86. ISBN 978-1-134-48841-4.
  11. ^ Philip Brasor (24 August 2008). "It's time for perfectly cute 50-year-old Japanese women". The Japan Times. Retrieved 17 September 2016.
  12. ^ Minggang Li (2008). The Early Years of Bungei Shunju and the Emergence of a Middlebrow Literature (PhD thesis). Ohio State University. p. 262.
  13. ^ Sandra Wilson (1998). "Women, the State and the Media in Japan in the Early 1930s". In Stephen S. Large (ed.). Shōwa Japan: 1926-1941. Vol. 1. London; New York: Routledge. p. 261. ISBN 978-0-415-14320-2.
  14. ^ Emiko Ochiai (1997). "Decent Housewives and Sensual White Women". Japan Review (9). JSTOR 25791006.
  15. ^ a b Jan Bardsley (2014). Women and Democracy in Cold War Japan. London; New York: Bloomsbury Academic. p. 111. ISBN 978-1-4725-2566-6.