Packaged Japaneseness: Weddings, Business and Brides (ConsumAsian Series) - Hardcover

"The the practices of inventing and reinventing traditions, of self-exoticizing or even reverse Orientalization, represents an important contribution to the study of contemporary Japanese consumer society and its preoccupation with Japaneseness."

Examines what is called the Ceremonial Occasions industry in Japan, in particular the commercialized production of contemporary weddings there. Based on anthropological fieldwork conducted in a wedding parlour, the study examines the production of Japanese ceremonial from the 'backstage' commercial point of view, focusing on weddings rather than marriage, and hence on the activities of the wedding producers rather than its principal actors. Main themes are the invention and production of tradition - both Japanese and western - for the purpose of consumption; the commercial and gendered packaging of the bride; and presentations of Japaneseness both as practice and as metaphor.