キンダイ ニホン ノ クツシタ ツクロイ 20セイキ ゼンハン ノ シンブン キジ ヲ チュウシン ト シタ ブンセキ

This study analyzes sock mending in modern Japan, which reached its peak during the Fifteen Years’ War, focusing on newspaper articles from the first half of the twentieth century and examining three periods and representative cases. In 1937, when the Second Sino-Japanese War began and it became necessary to secure military resources such as cotton and wool, synthetic fiber socks, which were prone to tearing, appeared on the market. Articles from this period reveal that it was taken for granted that family socks were managed through meticulous washing and reinforcement by housewives. In 1942, with the introduction of the clothing rationing system, socks were limited to six pairs per year. Faced with shortages, women responded not by making new ones but by unraveling, sewing, and carefully stitching old socks back together. In 1943, during the propaganda Maniawase (“Make Do”) campaign, newspaper readers submitted tips for repairing socks, showing how small techniques were mobilized to transform everyday life into wartime living. In this way, the time and effort women devoted to mending their family’s socks functioned as both a form of domestic labor and a means of wartime cooperation—one that was actively disseminated and celebrated through the media.