Showa, Men Had It Tough Too 3: On Counting Age
I began the story of Tsugio (my father), who was born in a farming village in Kagoshima in the early Showa era and lived out his life there as a farmer.
First, I mentioned that although Tsugio was born in Showa 2 (1927), his family register lists it as Showa 3 and that it was common in rural areas at the time for the actual birth date to differ from the registered date, with the custom of counting age by the traditional 'kazoedoshi' system serving as the background for this.
Although it is a slight digression from Tsugio himself, I remembered something related to birth registrations. I heard an interesting story very recently (since entering 2025), so I will record it here as it fits the flow of the conversation. It happened at the wake for Miyoko (my mother), who would later become Tsugio's wife.
Miyoko was born in Showa 5 (1930) and passed away at 95. However, Miyoko was also actually born one year earlier, in Showa 4, and she always said her zodiac sign was the 'Snake'.
During the bereaved family's address, my older brother Kazuaki touched upon Miyoko's age, saying,
'Although her age at death is listed as 96, our mother was born one year earlier than her family register states, so her actual age at death is 97.'
He then added,
'Mother's birthday is March 10th, but at that time, there were many cases where birth registrations were filed around March, and it seems that children born in the previous year were sometimes registered in March.'
That was when I (Fumiyo) understood.
In those days when large families were the norm, many babies died before they could grow up. I had been told by adults around me that parents would wait to see if the child would survive before filing a birth registration, and I had accepted this explanation and believed it for many years. I had also thought that since both Tsugio and Miyoko were born in March, they were each likely registered a year later.
Come to think of it, when I started this note and had the opportunity to trace back my family register to think about my family's past, I was curious about the high number of birth dates in February and March. When I looked up traditional age counting and old birth registrations on the internet, I also saw articles mentioning that before the family register system was established in the Meiji era, it was common to file birth registrations after the new year to align with the traditional custom where everyone turned a year older on New Year's Day.
In other words, isn't this the case for Tsugio, Miyoko, and many other children of that time?
When a baby is born (they are already 'one' in the traditional counting system), parents wait a while to see if the baby will grow up properly. In the meantime, the year changes, and everyone turns a year older in the traditional sense (the baby becomes 'two'). Parents and those around them think that they really should register the birth soon, and besides, since children enter elementary school (which became compulsory in the Meiji era) at 'seven' in April, it would be better to register them before April.
—Because of these circumstances, the result was that there were a noticeably high number of February and March births based on birth registrations.
There is also the historical context that many parents themselves could not read or write well and often had to rely on someone else to file registrations with the municipal office. I would like to supplement these points in Tsugio's story as well.