Showa, Men Had It Tough Too 2: Year of Birth

I have decided to begin the story of Tsugio (my father), who was born in a farming village in Kagoshima in the early Showa era and lived his entire life there as a farmer. Tsugio was born in March of Showa 3 (1928). This is what is recorded in the family register, but in reality, he was born a year earlier. I have mentioned here on note several times before that Miyoko (my mother), who was born in the same village as Tsugio and later became his wife, was also born a year earlier than her family register date of Showa 5 <323>.

To put it plainly, while there is the aspect that administrative procedures and the common people's sense regarding them were quite lax at the time, Japanese people originally recognized birth and age by the "kazoedoshi" (traditional Japanese age reckoning) system. Simply put, one was already one year old at birth, and then grew a year older when the New Year arrived—or the Lunar New Year before the Meiji era. Everyone did so all at once. Therefore, people were likely indifferent to individual birthdays or exact dates of birth.

Also, in an era where high birth and death rates were the norm and many commoners were not fully literate, reporting to the government office was likely not strictly enforced.

As I mentioned in the second installment, "

Birth Dates in the Old Days," of the story of Tsugio's father, Kichitaro (my grandfather), titled "Meiji—Kichitaro," Japan entered the modern era and the "Family Register Law" was enacted in Meiji 5 (1872) <323>. Until then, it seems that the births and deaths of commoners were often managed by the temples where each family was a parishioner or follower. The very idea of government offices managing the lives of the common people still had a short history. It was in a farming village in the early Showa era, where that mindset had not yet fully faded, that Tsugio was born. At the very least, his father, Kichitaro, was likely still carrying over the feelings and customs of the early Meiji era, or perhaps even the Edo period. This is because Kichitaro's livelihood and life had hardly changed since he was born. Furthermore, this was an era when the disparity between the center and the provinces in terms of information, economy, culture—in other words, everything—was greater than it is now.

<323> The first time I mentioned that the birth dates of Miyoko and Tsugio differed between the family register and reality was in "

A Short Break (Pre-war Birth Registration)."<324> "Family Register Law," Dajokan Proclamation No. 170 of April 4, Meiji 4 (1871), enacted February 1, Meiji 5.