-up. The fact that they were living with his mother created a power struggle between her and Haruko as far as who was in charge of the house and its duties. Women at this time kept the house, the finances, but in Haruko's case her mother-in-law still did all that stuff.
             It was hard for Bessho's farmers to make a satisfactory living using traditional methods of farming because it basically required the work of the entire family. This would take away from other duties that needed to be tended to. This would also put a hindrance on the option someone, especially women, having another job to create extra income. Sho-ichi makes a visit to the U.S. and observes how they did their farming using machinery, greatly reducing the amount of manual labor necessary. When he gets back he begins to promote this new way of farming to the locals in Bessho. The limitations of no electricity, no running water, and no automobiles made this tough to realize. Also, the size of land each individual owned was very small in size, eliminating the need for combines. Sho-i
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