Abstract

This article is a study of the representation of maids (kahi, jochū) in modern Japanese literature and culture. It examines maids as producers of affective labor—work that is not equated to wage production of material goods but one that demands emotion and affect. The article traces the emergence of this discourse in the Meiji era, calling it “the cult of happiness.” The study then analyzes the maid and the housewife in Higuchi Ichiyō’s (1872–96) “Warekara” (Split shell, 1896), published at the height of the “maid problem” (jochū mondai), when the role of the modern housewife (shufu) was also being determined.

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