Summering in Japanese hill stations: an analysis of villa ownership in modern Karuizawa

Abstract

In order to clarify how summering was introduced to Japan by foreigners and accepted by the Japanese, this paper traces the evolution of the hill station in Karuizawa through an analysis of the social characteristics of the region's landowners as well as their land acquisitions. Since European diplomats led by the British had founded hill stations in Japan before the recognition of Karuizawa, summering was accepted by North American missionaries in Karuizawa first, and then was accepted by the Japanese. This paper argues that economic superiority and imbalance between nations changed the primary function of the hill station; the sense of inferiority that led Japanese people to yearn for the rich material and cultural life of the foreigners was one of the driving forces of hill station formation in Japan. This paper thus contributes to research on colonialism and the international development of leisure activities.

Keywords:

• hill stations
• villa owners
• cadastres
• Karuizawa
• modern period

Notes on contributor

Daisuke Sato is an Associate Professor in tourism geography in the College of Tourism at Rikkyo University. His research interests include land use change in highland and coastal resorts; diffusion process of sports and other customs in Asia during the colonial period. This article is based on a study first reported in the Sato and Saito (2004).

Notes

1. List of properties owned by foreigners. 1892. Diplomatic Archives of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs.

2. Referring to Spencer (1911), the people who owned a number of villas were, with the exception of Mr and Mrs McNair, L. Oldham (six villas), J. Chappell (four villas), A.C. Shaw (three villas), and G. Gleason, D. Norman, Dr Slade, J.G. Dunlop, L. Grimmesey, C.H.D. Fisher and A.D. Woodworth (two villas each).

3. Referring to Ohe (2000, 737–744), Protestant missionaries’ annual salaries ranged from US $1200 to US $2080.

4. Referring to Hong Kong Telegraph (1892), the boarding fare for a first class room on P & O, a British ocean shipping firm, was US $50 from Yokohama to Hong Kong, and from Hong Kong to London was US $380.

5. For example, T. Shida studied in the UK and US and married his wife, who had taken private lessons in English from A.C. Shaw. He became the president of the YMCA in Tokyo in 1918.