Hiratsuka Raicho
 |
| Hiratsuka Raicho |
Hiratsuka Raicho 平塚雷鳥
元始、女性は太陽であった
At the beginning, women were the sun
Mother, Feminist, Journalist
Her given name was Hiratsuka Haru (平塚明 )For her publications she used her pen name Hiratsuka Raicho (平塚雷鳥), literarlly meaning Thunderbird
 | |
| Born in 東京府麹町区三番町, between the Imperial Palace and Yotsuya |
She was born in 1886 in Tokyo to a wealthy family and enjoyed a good education at Japan Women's University (日本女子大学).
 |
| Morita Sohei |
Hiratsuka attempted to commit a double suicide with her lover Morita Sohei (森田草平), a student of famous author Natsume Soseki (夏目漱石) in 1908, that was widely critizised by the public, because of both their highly educated background.
After this tumultous episode she graduated from university and went on to teach at Narumi Women's English School. It is there that in 1911 she found the first only female run magazine writing about women's issues and rights-青鞜 (Bluestocking).
 |
| Hiratsuka and Okumura |
Already years ahead of her time and actively 'rebelling' against the 'good wife, wise mother' concept by simply living her life, Hiratsuka in 1914, began to live openly with her 3 years
younger lover Hiroshi Okumura (奧村博史) with whom she had two children before they married in 1941.
青鞜 Bluestocking
Coming back to the quote at the beginning, this sentence is most famously known for being the first sentence in the first edition of 'Bluestocking'.
Hiratsuka is referencing the Shinto goddess Amaterasu who co-created Japan and is implying that women had lost their spiritual freedom throughout time. For women to be the 'sun' again, they had to fight for their rights to be equal to men.
Hiratsuka was 25 years old when she started the magazine. Already at this young age she thought about women's rights and the role they played in society.
If you want to learn more about this revolutionary feminist magazine, check out my next post on Bluestocking!
Successful Politics?
Hiratsuka, together with fellow feminists Ichikawa Fusae and Oku Mumeo founded the suffragette party 'New Woman Association (NWA, 新婦人協会) in 1920. The NWA advocated for two central changes in the political system and was successful in only short 2 years the party existed:
the freedom for women to participate in political gatherings and debates and
to change the civil code's divorce conditions.
They cleverly used the current 'good wife, wise mother' (良妻賢母) ideology to explain that women could not get STDs, unless their husbands were unfaithful, and thus was a threat to not only the wives, but moreover to the whole family, including the children. This also effectively prevented men from being unfaithful and gave women the rights to divorce their husbands.
The next major issue the NWA tackeld was changing Article 5 of the Public Order and Police Law of 1900 (治安警察法), so called 'Peace Police Act'. This demand was met with huge criticism and mysoginist comments from the uber conservative politicans in the diet, that women are too dumb and belonged at home.
Nonetheless, the NWA achieved a partical revision of the law in 1922, by collecting more then 2000 signatures on their petition and spreading awareness about the importance of the revision of the law.
Another progressive policy the NWA believed in was to include men to fight along side women for equality.
Ichikawa and Hiratsuka agreed that in order to achieve their goal, women had to be united in one unifying class, but on the details both feminists represented different views on details and nature of women's rights.
However, Hiratsuka pursued women's rights by emphasising the important role of motherhood, playing into the
母権主義 mother's rights
fought for women's rights for mothers
being patriotic to the nation
Legacy
The New Japan Women's Association (NJWA) continues Raicho's work in contemporary Japan to fight for women's rights.
The New Japan Women’s Association (NJWA or Shinfujin) was founded on October 19, 1962 at the call of 32 women including Hiratsuka Raicho (pioneer of the Japanese women's movement), Nogami Yaeko (writer) and Iwasaki Chihiro (artist of pictures for children.)
NJWA has 5 objectives and welcome every woman agreeing to it, regardless their political background, creed, or thought. Those 5 objectives are:
- Protect the lives of women and children from the danger of nuclear war
- Oppose the adverse revision of the Constitution and the resurgence of militarism
- Work together for better living conditions, extended women’s rights and children’s well-being
- Win genuine national independence, democracy and emancipation of women
- Join hands with women around the world for building lasting peace
Hiratsuka Raicho died in 1971 at the age of 87, leaving a legacy behind of feminism and equal rights for women in Japan. She set the stone for a longer process of modern Japanese feminism that still continues to this day.
Sources:
鎌田慧 反骨のジャーナリスト(3) 平塚らいてう NHK 人間大学 2002.2.20
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6d9R5ICR6nw
New Japan Women's Association
http://www.shinfujin.gr.jp/english/index.php
Okumura Hiroshi:
https://kotobank.jp/word/%E5%A5%A5%E6%9D%91%E5%8D%9A%E5%8F%B2-1062922
Photograph of Hiratsuka and Okumura:
http://fun4doodle.blogspot.com/2014/02/raicho-hiratsuka-128-2014-2-10-google.html
Professor Hopson's Chapter 7 of 'Gender in Modern Japan and Interwar Culture'
Comments
Post a Comment