Early Japanese Feminism: What Can We Learn From Those Who Came Before?
From Kishida Toshiko’s ‘maidens in boxes’ to radical feminist collectives, learn how these trailblazers resisted patriarchal norms and laid the groundwork for future generations.
By Twitter user @na74362408
Japan’s Meiji Period is best known for being the period in which the archipelago saw its first major foray onto the international stage. Prodded into the spotlight by Commodore Matthew Perry, it was in this era that Japan reluctantly entered trade agreements with the United States for basic material support, such as food, water, and firewood. This opened the floodgates for Japan to enter trade agreements—though highly restricted—with other countries, exposing the country to Western influence of all kinds, from policy to architecture, to food, and even to fashion.
This liberal influence invited both male and female thinkers to establish Japan’s “Popular Rights Movement”, wherein Japan’s first-wave feminists were born. Many of these fledgling first-wavers were completely pragmatic in their approach to feminism, believing that Japan’s technological advancement couldn't occur without a solid base of equality between the sexes to use as a foundation (Reese, Lyn, The Meiji Reforms and Obstacles for Women; Japan, 1878–1927). However, the male members of the movement were reluctant to sacrifice their dominance over their female counterparts. This sentiment was reflected in the ruling class, which, in an attempt to preserve the Japanese patriarchal hegemony in the face of such rapid Westernization, passed down legislation to restrict women’s rights specifically. This included:
The Meiji Constitution of 1889 and the Law of Election, in which women were denied voting rights.
The Law on Assembly and Political Association of 1889, which would later become Article 5 of the Peace Police Law of 1890. This law denied Japanese women the right to join political parties, attend political gatherings, or even take political science courses in school.
The Meiji Civil Code of 1898, which gave the male head of the family absolute authority over family members. Men had the sole right to control family property, determine where each family member could live, approve or disapprove of marriages and divorce, and control inheritance. The male head of each household was authorized to control his household members and assets. If a woman who had children divorced, she had to leave them with her former husband and his family.
These policies had the intended effect—early Japanese feminism was handicapped by the direct and brutal attacks against women’s rights, and it wouldn't be until the second wave that more significant strides could be made.
One woman who facilitated the shift from the intentionally-stifled first wave to the hatchling second wave was Kishida Toshiko, who, after leaving her service in the Emperor’s court as a teenager over her feminist views, coined the concept of ‘maidens in boxes’, a phrase she used to admonish the traditional Japanese culture surrounding the rearing of female children. She critiqued traditionalists for restricting the lives of young women to that of obedient wives and mothers—insisting that any ‘box’ a girl is raised in should be as big as the world itself—as well as her fellow reformists for their intention to revolutionize all of Japan for the better, while still maintaining customs of the past with regards to women’s rights (Reese, Lyn, The Meiji Reforms and Obstacles for Women; Japan, 1878–1927).
It is this unique intersection of rejection of historical tradition and Japanese cultural practices that characterized the second wave of Japanese feminism going into the Taisho Period. Indeed, Taisho Era feminists found themselves in the dual blades of rejecting both patriarchal tradition (as is the duty of any feminist worth her salt), as well as the traditions of her home country. The women of the Taisho Era found themselves in a position where they could only rely on one another, abandoned by their mothers who rejected their bid for independence and their male compatriots who resisted the loss of female subservience. As a result, Japanese feminists banded together to create organized groups, such as:
The Women’s Rights Recovery Association, established in 1907. Founded in Tokyo by anti-Qing members of the Chinese diaspora, it is one of the first anarcho-feminist groups of the 20th century. This group openly rejected the highly-popular Confucian traditions of the time, such as male privileges and female subservience. Members were forbidden from becoming second wives or concubines, and promised to combat societal oppression for its members. This group was also one of the few left-wing feminist groups that openly identified class disparity as a cause of misogyny. Although this doesn't necessarily align with the values of true radical feminism, it flew in the face of the more right-wing feminist-adjacent movements, which identified misogyny as a result of weakness within a morally bankrupt society (Working Class History, Women’s Rights Recovery Association Timeline, 2022).
The New Women’s Society was founded in 1919, and strove to improve women’s education and employment rights, as well as protecting women against venereal diseases (notably pointing out discrepancies between the double standards of sexual purity between men and women) and campaigning against the aforementioned Article 5, which disallowed women from forming political groups (Garon, Sheldon, Molding Japanese Minds: The State In Everyday Life, 1997, pp. 104–31).
The Red Wave Society (Sekirankai) was established in 1921 as a socialist women’s organization that published the magazine Omedetashi, held seminars and lectures, and distributed anti-war leaflets to the army. This organization openly advocated for economic independence as a means of women achieving liberation, and held firm that the abolition of capitalism would elevate the ability of women to escape economic subservience (Hane, Mikiso, Reflections on the Way to the Gallows: Rebel Women in Prewar Japan, 1988, pp. 125–74).
Now, this isn't to say these groups were perfect—their anti-marriage stances were often conditional, and men played a non-insignificant part in their creation and operations. However, we should take note of these organizations’ existence—born in direct opposition to government-mandated submission of women and constantly under the threat of Japan’s notorious thought police (Itō Noe, editor-in-chief of the Bluestocking feminist magazine and founding member of the Red Wave Society, was murdered by the state because of her views), these women rejected the norms of their country and state, and fought valiantly for gender parity despite the danger (Nelson, David G., "Itō Noe (1895–1923)". The International Encyclopedia of Revolution and Protest (Volume IV), 2009, pp. 1848–9).
In the year 2024, Western women have the benefit of feminist movements that have come before us—of our foremothers who have fought for our right to vote, to divorce, to gather and share our thoughts, to have financial independence—to utilize these things for the betterment of our material conditions. It, therefore, becomes our responsibility to see those who have come before without these benefits—our sisters, not just in Japan, but across the world, who had no laurels to rest on—and to rise above their means. It is not enough to pick and choose between our rejection of a male-dominated society and a capitalist one, or to limit our activism to something palatable and safe; if women who had everything to lose—their families, their friends, their lives—were able to create organizations that provided material support for women in their community (including non-feminists), so should we take from their example and build upon it.
Just as we must build upon the praxis of our sisters, who have paved the path we continue to walk today, our work will serve as the foundation guiding those who will come after us. The fight for feminism is not a sprint against one another, wherein individual ideologies trump the importance of the goal we all share. This is an effort that is collaborative by its very nature, which serves a greater purpose than the sum of its parts.
It is our responsibility to ensure the only box women are placed in is as big as the world itself.