“The Joy of Normal Living” as the Promise of Happiness for Japanese Women and their Families

“The Joy of Normal Living” is at once the motto and the ideology of Kurihara Harumi, Japan’s best-known charisma housewife and icon of domesticity. This article looks at the relationship between “normal living” and the promise of happiness, as formulated in postwar Japan. Beginning with the government’s promotion, in the early postwar period, of the idea of akarui seikatsu (bright new life) as related to the typical suburban middle-class family of salaryman husband and full-time housewife, the article goes on to look at the cultural idea of “being happy as a woman” in contemporary Japan. Based on in-depth interviews with full-time housewives, and an analysis of popular women’s magazines, this article seeks to decipher what constitutes the idea of happiness for these women and for their generation.     

The Tantura F shipwreck: hull remains and finds—final report

The Tantura F shipwreck was discovered in 1996, and was excavated in 2004–2007. It was dated to between the mid 7th and the end of the 8th centuries AD. The remains comprised the bottom of the hull, including the lower part of the turn of the bilge on both sides and the beginning of the upward curvature at the bow and the stern. It was constructed based on frames. Among the finds were two anchors, 30 ceramic items, fish remains, food remnants, matting and ropes. The finds are of eastern Mediterranean and Egyptian origins. The Tantura F shipwreck is evidence of frame‐first construction in the period. It is also evidence of a trade route along the Levant coast and of the existence of a settlement in the Dor region at that time.     

The Tantura F Shipwreck, Israel

Tantura F is the first wreck excavated so far in the eastern Mediterranean dated to the beginning of the 8th century AD (the local early Islamic period), based on ¹⁴C and pottery analysis. Among the finds were the remains of about 30 ceramic vessels, two anchors, food remnants, fish-bones, a needle, a spoon and a glass vessel. Tantura F was c .15 m long and 5 m wide, and hull remains comprise keel, frames, planks, stringers, mast-step, and other internal components. Construction features clearly indicate frame-based construction, considerably earlier than it is generally thought to have been first employed.
© 2006 The Authors