Raicho Hiratsuka - AbsoluteAstronomy.com

Writer

A writer is a person who produces literature, such as novels, short stories, plays, screenplays, poetry, or other literary art. Skilled writers are able to use language to portray ideas and images....

, journalist

Journalist

A journalist collects and distributes news and other information. A journalist's work is referred to as journalism.A reporter is a type of journalist who researchs, writes, and reports on information to be presented in mass media, including print media , electronic media , and digital media A...

, political activist and pioneering Japanese

Japanese people

The are an ethnic group originating in the Japanese archipelago and are the predominant ethnic group of Japan. Worldwide, approximately 130 million people are of Japanese descent; of these, approximately 127 million are residents of Japan. People of Japanese ancestry who live in other countries...

feminist.

Life

Born Haru Hiratsuka (平塚明 Hiratsuka Haru) in Tokyo

Tokyo

, ; officially , is one of the 47 prefectures of Japan. Tokyo is the capital of Japan, the center of the Greater Tokyo Area, and the largest metropolitan area of Japan. It is the seat of the Japanese government and the Imperial Palace, and the home of the Japanese Imperial Family...

in 1886, the second daughter of a high ranking civil servant. Entering Japan Women's University

Japan Women's University

is the oldest and largest of private Japanese women's universities. The university was established in 20 April 1901 by education reformist .The university has around 6000 students and 200 faculty...

in 1903, she came to be influenced by contemporary currents of European philosophy, as well as Zen Buddhism, of which she would become a devoted practitioner. Of particular influence to her was turn-of-the-century Swedish

Sweden

Sweden , officially the Kingdom of Sweden , is a Nordic country on the Scandinavian Peninsula in Northern Europe. Sweden borders with Norway and Finland and is connected to Denmark by a bridge-tunnel across the Öresund....

feminist writer Ellen Key

Ellen Key

Ellen Karolina Sofia Key was a Swedish difference feminist writer on many subjects in the fields of family life, ethics and education and was an important figure in the Modern Breakthrough movement...

, some of whose works she translated into Japanese. Upon graduation from university, she entered the Narumi Women's English School where, in 1911, she founded Japan's first all-women literary magazine, Seitō , whose first issue she opened with the words “In the beginning, woman was the sun.” – a reference to the Shinto

Shinto

or Shintoism, also kami-no-michi, is the indigenous spirituality of Japan and the Japanese people. It is a set of practices, to be carried out diligently, to establish a connection between present day Japan and its ancient past. Shinto practices were first recorded and codified in the written...

myth of creation – and whose contributors included renowned poet and women’s rights proponent Yosano Akiko

Yosano Akiko

was the pen-name of a Japanese author, poet, pioneering feminist, pacifist, and social reformer, active in the late Meiji period as well as the Taishō and early Showa periods of Japan. Her name at birth was Otori Shô. She is one of the most famous, and most controversial, post-classical woman poets...

among others. Adopting the pen name “Raichō” (“Thunderbird”), she began to call for a women’s spiritual revolution, and within its first few years the journal’s focused shifted from literature to women’s issues, including candid discussion of female sexuality, chastity

Chastity

Chastity refers to the sexual behavior of a man or woman acceptable to the moral standards and guidelines of a culture, civilization, or religion....

and abortion

Abortion

Abortion is defined as the termination of pregnancy by the removal or expulsion from the uterus of a fetus or embryo prior to viability. An abortion can occur spontaneously, in which case it is usually called a miscarriage, or it can be purposely induced...

. The journal quickly gained notoriety and several issues fell foul of the state censors. Meanwhile, in 1914, Hiratsuka began living openly with her younger lover, artist Okumura Hiroshi, with whom she had two children out of wedlock and eventually married in 1941. The journal folded in 1915, but not before establishing its founder as a leading light in Japan’s nascent women's movement.

In 1920, following an investigation into female workers' conditions in textile factories in Nagoya which further galvanized her political resolve, Hiratsuka founded the New Women's Association together with fellow women's rights activist Ichikawa Fusae. It was largely through this group's efforts the Article 5 of the Police Security Regulations, which, enacted in 1900, had barred women from joining political organizations and holding or attending political meetings, was overturned in 1922. Women's suffrage

Women's suffrage

Women's suffrage or woman suffrage is the right of women to vote and to run for office. The expression is also used for the economic and political reform movement aimed at extending these rights to women and without any restrictions or qualifications such as property ownership, payment of tax, or...

, however, remained elusive in Japan. A further – and more controversial – campaign which Hiratsuka led was a campaign to ban men with venereal disease from getting married. This unsuccessful campaign remains a point of controversy surrounding Hiratsuka’s career in that it saw her aligned herself with the eugenics

Eugenics

Eugenics is the "applied science or the bio-social movement which advocates the use of practices aimed at improving the genetic composition of a population", usually referring to human populations. The origins of the concept of eugenics began with certain interpretations of Mendelian inheritance,...

movement, asserting that the spread of V.D. was having a deteriorating effect on the Japanese “race.”

The next couple of decades saw Hiratsuka withdraw somewhat from the public eye, saddled with debts and her lover beset with health problems, although she would continue to write and lecture. The postwar years, however, saw her emerge anew as a public figure through the peace movement. In 1950, the day after the outbreak of the Korean War

Korean War

The Korean War was a conventional war between South Korea, supported by the United Nations, and North Korea, supported by the People's Republic of China , with military material aid from the Soviet Union...

, she traveled to the United States

United States

The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...

together with writer and activist Nogami Yaeko

Nogami Yaeko

was the pen-name of a novelist in Shōwa period Japan. Her maiden name was Kotegawa Yae.-Early life:Nogami was born in Usuki, Ōita, Oita prefecture as the daughter of a wealthy sake brewer. She was taught at home by private tutors, including Kubo Kaizo, who introduced her to classic Chinese...

and three other members of the Japan Women's Movement in order to present US Secretary of State

Secretary of State

Secretary of State or State Secretary is a commonly used title for a senior or mid-level post in governments around the world. The role varies between countries, and in some cases there are multiple Secretaries of State in the Government....

Dean Acheson

Dean Gooderham Acheson was an American statesman and lawyer. As United States Secretary of State in the administration of President Harry S. Truman from 1949 to 1953, he played a central role in defining American foreign policy during the Cold War...

with a request that a system be created in which Japan could remain neutral and pacifist. Hiratsuka continued to champion women's rights in the postwar era, founding the New Japan Women's Association in 1963 together with Nogami and noted artist Iwasaki Chihiro, and continuing to write and lecture up until her death in 1971.

Legacy

While her career as a political activist covered many decades, Hiratsuka is primarily remembered for her stewardship of the Seito group. As a leading light of the women’s movement in early twentieth century Japan, she was a highly influential figure whose devotees ranged from pioneering Korean feminist author Na Hyesok who was a student in Tokyo during Seito’s heyday to anarchist and social critic Ito Noe whose membership in the Seito organization generated some controversy. Her postwar organization, the New Japan Women’s Organization, remains active to this day.

Japanese works

(Marumado yori, The View from the Round Window)
(Genshi, josei wa taiyo de atta, In The Beginning Woman Was The Sun)
(Watakushi no aruita michi, The Road I Walked)

Translations

Ellen Karolina Key, The Renaissance of Motherhood

Ellen Karolina Key, Love and Marriage

Sources

(One Hundred Million People's Showa History from Father to Child – Modern Biographical Histories), Mainichi Shimbun Press, 1977.

Sumiko Otsubo, Engendering Eugenics: Women's Pursuit of Anti-V.D. Marriage Restriction Law in Taisho Japan, Ohio State University Press.

External links