Memories of Silk and Straw

Finally a non-fiction read this year, and a very good one. Memories of Silk and Straw is an ethnographic study by a Japanese doctor, Dr. Junichiro Saga, published in the 1980s, a decade of super affluence in Japan. He interviewed lots of elderly people who grew up in a small village about 100 miles north of Tokyo and asked them to recall life, trade, daily activities, etc in the early days of the 20^th century. These days most resembled life in “old Japan,” and he wanted to record how people lived at that time. Most of those interviewed were born around 1900, and a few prior to that. He interviewed everyone from midwives to dyers to geisha to farmers. Some of the stories are astounding.