Urbanities,
Vol. 3
·
No 1
·
May 2013
© 2013
Urbanities
75
Diversification and individualization of celebration patterns
The latest developments in Shichigosan celebration patterns could be best characterized by
the term ‘diversification’. New types of services and goods continue to be invented by market
actors in order to satisfy clients’ needs. Photo studios, department stores, hotels, rental shops
together with major shrines and temples promote their own Shichigosan sets which include
complex set of services for more affordable prices. Publicity leaflets for these packages often
arrive directly at the homes of families with small children. In the recent decade, along with
standard service packs, extravagant options began to appear as well. Vacations to Hawaii,
photographing in a studio imitating the atmosphere of Hollywood, celebrations in amusement
parks (such as Disneyland) are but few examples of the excessive options available to be
combined with the celebration of Shichigosan.
The development towards a multiplicity of celebration options and a diversification of
services is congruent with ongoing changes taking place in contemporary Japanese society.
Needs, desires, lifestyle and values are becoming more diverse and less conformed in Japan
today. Plurality is acknowledged as one of the salient characteristics of modern Japanese
family life. The market is reacting to this demand by reflecting the desire of individuals as
well as individual families to differentiate themselves. The variety of celebration options for
Shichigosan means that none of the existing patterns are labeled as the only acceptable or
proper. Socially accepted patterns of Shichigosan today make it possible to accommodate the
needs of particular families and offer space for the expression of individuality in the form of
personal preferences.
Women’s role in the ritual must be addressed, as well. Mothers are the principal
organizers and promoters of the Shichigosan celebration. The factors underlying this
development are manifold. The first is connected to the place that Japanese women occupy in
the modern family. Another includes the increasing importance of the preparative and
planning phase of the Shichigosan celebration over the last few decades. In the course of the
20
th
century, the division of labor in Japanese families gave Japanese women the control over
the household as well as childrearing.
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Decisions over the daily running of household,
childrearing and education fell to women and it is their preferences and demands that
represent the main motivating force for most of consumption that takes place within the
family (Kuraishi 1990; Clammer 1997). The implications of these developments can be
29
For a more detailed discussion of this subject see Hendry 1986; Imamura 1987; Lock 1988 and
White 2002.
