Bodies and Structures

Mapping Production

Each collection, boxed or unboxed, embodied a hidden network of production and distribution, that, if unpacked, speaks of local labor, local conditions for production, and transportation routes. Where did all the goods that Mitsukoshi sold come from?  These stories are ones that are generally left out of customary accounts of the retailer. We might begin by asking who made Mitsukoshi's foundational commodity, textiles?  Janet Hunter's article, "Japanese Women at Work, 1880-1920," is an excellent starting place.

Here we have a gift box of food items curated for the winter season, each item carefully labeled by type.  If we think of it in terms of production rather than consumption, we can begin to map out points (based on probability) in an Osaka-centered network in the map above.  Would it look different if the gift box was offered by a branch of Mitsukoshi in Tokyo?  If you look closely, you will find that the Mitsukoshi brand was  actually on several items. What kind of arrangement did this represent?  Was it just a label, or was Mitsukoshi more directly involved in maritime and agricultural production, as it sometimes was in manufacture? There is much work to be done to reconstruct the production side of Mitsukoshi. 


Here is a map that suggests production and circulation lines on a much broader scale.  How might this and other product maps be used to discuss the distribution of power across regions, nations, and the world, and how these relations might shift over time?


 

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