Introduction
Chapter 1: Let's Go to a Department Store: Where the Fashion is!
Chapter 2: Shopping at Department Stores: A Place to Discover People and Things
Chapter 3: See, Eat, and Experience: The Ways that Department Stores Make Shopping Fun
Afterword/References
Japanese

2 Shopping at Department Stores: A Place to Discover People and Things

Time to take a look inside some of these department stores, where we are sure to run into some amazing people and products.

Your Choice of Merchandise

One thing you can be sure of is that modern department stores display a wide variety of merchandise. It wasn’t always that way, however. Let’s take a look at how kimono shops operated until at least midway through the Meiji era.

The Antecedents of Department Stores

At the beginning of the Meiji era, a customer who came into a kimono shop would sit in the storefront and relax while a salesclerk ran back and forth, bringing fabric and other items out from the warehouse for the customer to examine. While entirely different from how today’s retail stores operate, modern department stores did, in fact, develop from shops like these.

Features of Department Stores: Displays

By the end of the Meiji era, major kimono shops, such as Mitsukoshi, Shirakiya, and Takashimaya, in imitation of their western counterparts, had started to display merchandise in their storefront instead of bringing it out from the warehouse on request from a customer. The development of the modern department store had begun.

This poster shows Mitsukoshi’s kimono displays in 1896. While the building itself is still essentially the former kimono shop, there are many colorful fabrics on display throughout the storefront.

This photo of the sales floor in the Shirakiya kimono shop in Nihombashi shows the tremendous variety of stationary, umbrellas, and other merchandise on display there.

The Shobai hanjo no hiketsu is a business manual that was written by HIBI Osuke, who developed Mitsukoshi into a modern department store and eventually became chairman of the board. It instructs the reader on how to manage a retail store, and sings the praises of storefront displays as a way that “customers can choose their preferred merchandise at a glance, saving retailers time and effort.”

Column: Were Department Stores the First 100-yen Shops?

Although modern department stores have a reputation for selling only high-quality merchandise at a premium price, in the early days of the Showa era, many were managed like today’s 100-yen shops.
In 1926 (Taisho 15), Takashimaya set up an “10-sen shop (one-tenth of a yen shop)” in one corner of its Osaka Nagahori store. In 1931, this was developed into a separate chain of stores called “Takashimaya 10-sen stores,” which the following year began to sell items priced 20 yen and had to change its name to “Takashimaya 10-sen and 20-sen stores.” By 1941, they had a total of 106 stores, which remained a popular place to buy daily necessities right up to the end of the war.

Column: Literature and Department Stores

Department stores sometimes appear to be a symbol of urban culture in Japanese literature.

NATSUME Soseki: Gubijinso (poppy) Yukata

NATSUME Soseki was one of Japan’s the greatest novelists, who often made reference to the names of well-known department stores in his works. For example, in his novel Sanshiro, the protagonist sees a beautiful woman in a Mitsukoshi advertisement, which causes him to imagine the face of his love interest, Mineko.
Mitsukoshi also took advantage of the reputation of Soseki’s first novel to be serialized in a newspaper, Gubijinso, to make and sell “Gubijinso yukata cloth.” An article entitled “Gubijinso yukata” in the July 6, 1907, edition of the Asahi Shimbun stated that “the Mitsukoshi kimono store is aggressively marketing Gubijinso yukata, but they are so popular that demand has quickly outstripped supply.” No doubt, the popularity of Soseki’s Gubijinso contributed to the high demand.

YOSANO Akiko: Mitsukoshi’s Bargain Sale

YOSANO Akiko was an author and poet who was also a pioneer for a number of social causes. Her Joshi no fumi is a guidebook to writing letters for women, and one of the examples includes an invitation to go to Mitsukoshi’s bargain sale as well as a reply to the invitation. In the preface, Yosano says that she wrote these examples as if she were going to use them herself. Even though the letter is little more than an invitation to go shopping together, it is full of originality.
In the letter to her friend, the writer complains that her family has been teasing her for being “a typical housewife, who is more interested in ads for bargain sales than in viewing cherry blossoms” and that she has “heard rumors about a new yukata available at Mitsukoshi, but we can always go to a different store, too, if we can’t find what we are looking for.” In reply to which, her friend writes back that they should go shopping to enjoy themselves without being pretentious or demeaning to others.

Service that Links People with Merchandise

While shopping is undoubtedly fun, there are times when customers need advice about which dress is more flattering or if something comes in a smaller size. And that is when a salesclerk’s help is needed.

A Career for Women as Salesclerks

Women have always played an important role as salesclerks in department stores. The number of housewives who maintained careers outside the home began to increase during the Taisho era in the early decades of the 20th century. Actually, department stores had begun to employ women for the first time just before the turn of the century, and as these stores modernized their management, so too did they hire more and more women. Department stores were not just bright and sophisticated as well as trendy but were also gaining a reputation for being innovative.

In department stores of the early Showa era, women did a number of different jobs, including working as salesclerks, cashiers, and elevator operators.

Working as a salesclerk in a department was one of the most popular jobs among women in the early days of the Showa era. The results of a 1931 survey of career women within the present-day 23 wards of Tokyo were published as Fujin shokugyo sensen no tenbo, which in addition to different statistics also contained some reviews of women elevator operators. This list, entitled “today’s most satisfying events,” contains comments from working women of the day that still resonate with modern Japanese.

Naturally, knowledgeable salesclerks capable of providing personalized service are still as integral a part of today’s department stores as they were back then. Salesclerks play an important role in connecting customers with the merchandise they desire.

Column: With a Single Purpose: Department Store Employees United

Building a dedicated and energetic salesforce is an essential part of providing customers with an enjoyable shopping experience. And one of the ways that department stores heighten the espirit de corps of their staff is by having them exercise together to music.

Exercising to the Takashimaya Store Song in the Early Showa Era

This picture, taken in the early days of the Showa era, shows Takashimaya employees dancing to the store song. This kind of “exercising to the store song” was one way of inspiring salesclerks to work as a team. The picture of women employees exercising together on the roof of the store certainly gives the impression that they were united.

ISETAN-TAN-TAN at the End of the Heisei Era

In 2014, Isetan posted a promotional video to YouTube, in which Isetan clerks from Japan and all over the world are dancing to the official store song, the “ISETAN-TAN-TAN,” with music and lyrics by YANO Akiko. The video features a variety of sales displays and merchandise as well as people who provide the personalized service for which Japanese department stores are famous.

External Link Bottom Pop promo [ISETAN-TAN-TAN Pop promo]>2014>Prize winners>Good design award

Well, thanks to the salesclerk’s advice, we found what we wanted. But there are still many other attractions on the upper floors that we have yet to visit. Quick! Hop into this elevator!

Next Chapter 3:
See, Eat, and Experience