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As discussed in Chapter 2, there are pessimistic views of the decline of family din- ing in many societies including Australia and Japan. However, such claims are not necessarily supported by long histories of happy family meals in each society. Like the use of chopsticks in Japan and Sunday roast in Australia, the notion of family meals is a production of a range of cultural contacts. The ideology of home and family meals is not native to both Australian and Japanese societies. The structure and ideology of family dining in Australia and Japan originated from Victorian do- mesticity emerged in the nineteenth century in the Great Britain. It was introduced to two societies in the nineteenth century, spread through literature and television, and became a nostalgia for good old days in the late twentieth century. At the same time, different historical events and conjunctures were intertwined with these adoptions of family dining in each society.

Victorian middle-class domesticity and family dining

The ideology and structure of modern family mealtimes emerged and was widely accepted in nineteenth century’s Victorian England, followed by socio-economic changes driving the separation of public workplaces and private home and deep commitments to the idea of home (Tosh, 2007). The impacts of domestic reform discourses were extended to everyday activities including gendered eating practices, table manners, and children’s education (Fitts, 1999; Gray, 2013). The develop- ment of domesticity among Victorian middle-class was driven by the need of male labours (Tosh, 1996) and the rise of competitive individualism along with rapid industrialisation and urbanisation (Gillis, 1989). The idea of domesticity was also introduced to British colonies like Australia and New Zealand (Wagner, 2011) and India (Blunt, 1999) as well as to former colonies the United States through European and American bourgeois (Cinotto, 2006).

4.4. TRANSFORMATION OF CULINARY CULTURES AND PRACTICES 93 Development of family dining in Australia

Unlike Britain and Ireland where the development of public and private spheres were fostered by the process of industrialisation, the settlement in Australia started as public and a private sphere was carefully constructed (Russell, 1993). During settlement, settlers tried to replicate their own traditional taste and practices in the new land (Symons, 2007). Building domesticity was symbol of civilisation in the context of rural settlement (Russell, 1993). Family meal practices followed English dining. Valuing plain food as wholesome and virtuous, Australian experiences of family dining in early twentieth century centred on utilitarian aspects of food rather than eating for pleasure (Banwell et al., 2012, 25). The British roast dinner on Sunday was maintained (Walker and Roberts, 1988). The ideology of gendered domesticity reflected on structure of family meal: the timing of meals, the menu, the order of serving, and sometimes conversation were determined by male breadwinners, and women and children had little influence (Banwell et al., 2012, 25-26).

The post-second world war economic prosperity in the 1950s and 1960s fostered the expansion of the population of middle-class that embraced the domesticity as a cultural icon. The development of television cooking shows also served to main- tain British and English heritages in the post-war Australian society. After the second world war, many middle-class Australian women shifted out of the wartime labour force and became housewives to fulfil new duty to the nation (de Solier, 2005, 469). When television was introduced to Australia in the 1950s, many Aus- tralian households set television either in the kitchen or the dining room (Groves, 2004). Television cooking shows during the time such as the programs by Bill Kerr, Margaret Fulton, and Bernard King influenced to generate Anglo-Celtic notion of Australian identity and idea of family meals (de Solier, 2005).

Narratives of Australian culinary history from the 1960s onwards are greatly different from those in the 1950s and early 1960s, and they increased attention to gender and cultural diversity (Duruz, 1999). Television became a site for negotiating multiculturalism within Australia: in the 1970s, Anglo-Australian chefs introduced exotic foods to the audiences, and in the 1990s, migrant Australian chefs appeared on television programs (de Solier, 2005, 469–470). Additionally, increasing avail- ability and accessibility of food encouraged more urban Australians to develop an omnivorous taste, while family dining also started to accommodate individual prefer- ences and taste (Banwell et al., 2012). Despite these dynamic changes of Australian society between this time period, changes did not occur in all populations. An in- terview study in the late 1990s showed that the expansion of exotic food did not reach rural communities which lacked access to new food items and taste (Lupton,

2000). Older Australians of European descents, who were born in the 1920s and 1930s, retained eating habits and practices from their childhood in the 1930s and 1940s, and concerned for negative health effects of eating convenience or pre-cooked meals (Banwell et al., 2010).

Development of family dining in Japan

The idea of family dining has been introduced as antithesis of traditional patriarchy at households by Christians and socialist scholars in late nineteenth century (Omote, 2010). One of advocates Yoshiharu Iwamoto was a founder of the first women’s mag- azine in Japan (Jogaku-zasshi), and set up a column called Nihon no kazoku (the Japanese family) to assert the notion of home and family in comparison between western and Japanese households which he observed from migrant families living in Japan. However, the new idea was accepted only among wealthy and educated people in urban areas (Omote, 2010, 44–45). For many centuries, the majority of Japanese people ate together but rarely shared the same table together. People had meals either on the floor or on personal tray boxes, as discussed in Section 4.4.1, and each dish was served in individual plates and bowls. This way of eating reflects various rituals associated with the traditional family structure called Ie which are the household consisting of extended family members. It was common that house- hold members did not eat at the same time. Kagezen is a practice to set up a meal for absent family members to wish their health and well-being, and it indicates that sharing the same food signifies symbol of household rather than sharing mealtime together (Ishige, 2005). During this time, eating was an everyday ritual associated with cultural and religious rules that regulated individual behaviours and food in- take. Conversation was not allowed and the way to eat was highly restricted by cultural rules (Omote, 2010).

“Eating around the table” has widely spread in early to mid-twentieth cen- tury during the Taisho and the early Showa periods, when the Japanese households started to use a short-legged table called chabudai. Before and during the Second World War, the national government promoted commensality to enhance national cohesion. The government’s intervention in school lunches was aimed at not only improving children’s health but also at disciplining their behaviour, to train children to become productive labourers and soldiers for the nation (Iwasaki, 2008, 40). By this time, the use ofchabudai was widely spread to working class families. However, there were few changes in eating practices(Ishige, 2005).

The idea and practice of family dining were realised in Japan during the post- war economic development between the 1950s and the 1980s (Omote, 2010). The

4.4. TRANSFORMATION OF CULINARY CULTURES AND PRACTICES 95 realisation was associated with the emergence of the modern nuclear family with full- time housewives. As discussed in Section 4.1.4, by the 1970s, many Japanese women were not housewives and engaged with family business and agriculture, and female labour force participation was higher than Australia. The emergence of full-time housewives among middle-class families promoted rigid gendered division of labours not only at the household but also within the contemporary Japanese society (Ochiai, 2005, 45). House architecture and meal practices such as sharing a big plate were adopted for housewives’ convenience. Ishige (2005) suggested that the shift from the patriarchy to the housewife-centred family was symbol of the democratisation of households which was a part of post-war dominant ideology (Ishige, 2005, 175). Thus, family dining became a part of an important social practice associated with the structural shift from the traditional patriarch system to the post-war democracy. Additionally, the image of American middle-class family and their lifestyles was introduced through television series such as “I Love Lucy” and “Father Knows Best” and became the utopian goal of many Japanese in the 1950s (Ivy, 1993). Both radio and television stations promoted radio and television as symbols of family gathering (Komuro, 2009). Family dinners in front of television was also a popular practice in western societies like Australia (Groves, 2004) and the United States (Spigel, 2013). However, the development of the middle-class family meals and the introduction of television to the middle-class households occurred at different time in the western societies. What is unique about the experience in Japan in comparison to the West is that the development of democratic family and television occurred during a similar period of time.

Despite only be established in Japanese society for a short time, public debates around the decline of family dining encompass anxieties over social changes and globalisation of Japanese societies from the 1980s onwards. In 2011, the Japanese government launched a new agenda to promote family dining through the Shokuiku

Basic Law. The new plan stated that eating together (Kyou-shoku) was a core of

Shokuiku (food and nutrition education) (Cabinet Office, 2011, 5). The new agenda employs the family as an education agent for children and young people, and frames family meals as a multi-functional practice to fulfil a wide range of goals ofShokuiku

from public health to preservation of Japanese culinary culture and food system.