Episode 330 – In the Beginning, Woman was the Sun, Part 2

March 20, 2020

This week, we continue our exploration of the life of Hiratsuka Raicho, and add a new character to our cast: Ichikawa Fusae. How did these two women navigate the tricky waters of 1920s and 1930s Japanese politics, and what obstacles did they encounter along the way?

Sources

Huffman, James L. Modern Japan: An Encyclopedia of History, Culture, and Nationalism.

Ichikawa, Fusae and Yoko Nuita. “Fusae Ichikawa: Japanese Women Suffragist.” Frontiers: A Journal of Women’s Studies 3, No. 3 (Autumn, 1978).

Molony, Barbara. “From ‘Mothers of Humanity’ to ‘Assisting the Emperor’: Gendered Rhetoric and Belonging in the Wartime Rhetoric of Japanese Feminist Ichikawa Fusae.” Pacific Historical Review 80, No. 1(February, 2011).

Craig, Teruko, trans. In the Beginning, Woman was the Sun: The Autobiography of Hiratsuka Raicho. 

Garon, Sheldon. Molding Japanese Minds: The State in Everyday Life.

Images

An image of the founding of the New Women’s Society, originally from the archives of the Kokumin Shinbun. Circa 1920. Hiratsuka is to the right; Ichikawa to the left.
A meeting of the New Women’s Association in 1921.
Another meeting of the New Women’s Association.
Ichikawa Fusae at the time of the founding of the New Women’s Association.