ABSTRACT
The word ‘household’ has been used so far to apply to the members of a single residential unit. In Japanese this is the setai or ko, where setai (or shotai) means exclusively ‘household’ in this sense, while ko may also have other meanings, such as ‘door’ and ‘house’. The extent to which this household displays the characteristics of the traditional ie, which were outlined in Chapter 1, will be under consideration in this chapter. The chief differences between the setai and the ie is that the former is an actual representation at any time of the ie, which itself includes an ideology of continuity, a diachronic element of remembrance of preceding generations and, indeed, of the importance of ensuring future ones. The word ie can also be used in reference to the present household, to the building which houses it, and, in writing, it appears in compound words which use an alternative reading of the character, ka, for example: kagyō (household occupation), kafū (ways of the house), kamon (house crest) and kazoku (family).1
