Some of Japan’s brightest, most extraordinary women of the 1910s – poet Akiko Yosano, suffragist Fusae Ichikawa, anarchist Noe Ito, just to name but a few – coalesced around a nascent women’s liberation movement spearheaded by Raicho, a fierce nonconformist unencumbered by traditions. By shedding light on women’s issues that had been previously off-limits, Bluestocking sparked controversies as well as passionate debates pertaining to women’s rights – during the period the country still subscribed to feudal-era patriarchal values, which praised the “good wife, wise mother” model of femininity. Written for, about, and by women, Bluestocking’s influence was far-reaching. With incisive foresight, Raicho declared that the New Woman is someone who does not shy away from seeking “to destroy the old morality and laws created for male advantage….” She added prophetically that this new breed of Japanese woman “seeks power to complete her mission, to be able to endure the exertion and agony of learning about and cultivating issues now unknown to her….”ĭuring the span of half a decade the magazine was in existence (1911-1916), Bluestocking contributed immeasurably in raising awareness of matters such as reproductive rights, female suffrage, as well as more sensitive subjects including female chastity and the notion of “free love” (as opposed to arranged marriage which was by then the norm), for a female readership clamoring for new ideas. Jansen attributes its birth to a young trailblazing iconoclast by the name of Raicho Hiratsuka (1886-1971), who proclaimed herself as a “New Woman” in her infamous manifesto, “In the Beginning, Woman Was the Sun.” The then 25-year-old’s battlecry, published in September of that year in the inaugural issue of her own literary journal, Bluestocking, would forever alter the trajectory of the status of Japanese womanhood.

Though it may come as a surprise to many, the history of Japan’s feminist awakening – nowadays rarely discussed outside the confines of academia – traces as far back as the waning days of the Meiji Period (1868-1912).Īccording to historian Marius Jansen’s authoritative The Making of Modern Japan, the origin of the country’s first-wave feminism dates back to 1911 – several years before either Britain or the United States signed women’s enfranchisement into law.

The making of modern japan jansen