Rethinking Japanese Feminisms

Rethinking Japanese Feminisms

With contributions by: Elyssa Faison, Julia C. Bullock, Sarah Frederick, Barbara Hartley, Kathryn Hemmann, Ayako Kano, Chris McMorran, Akwi Seo, Hillary Maxson, Setsu Shigematsu, Nancy K. Stalker, J. Keith Vincent, James Welker, Leslie Winston and Tomomi Yamaguchi
Edited by: Julia C. Bullock, Ayako Kano and James Welker

University of Hawaii Press | 2017

https://doi.org/10.1515/9780824866730

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Contents

About this book

Rethinking Japanese Feminisms offers a broad overview of the great diversity of feminist thought and practice in Japan from the early twentieth century to the present. Drawing on methodologies and approaches from anthropology, cultural studies, gender and sexuality studies, history, literature, media studies, and sociology, each chapter presents the results of research based on some combination of original archival research, careful textual analysis, ethnographic interviews, and participant observation.

The volume is organized into sections focused on activism and activists, employment and education, literature and the arts, and boundary crossing. Some chapters shed light on ideas and practices that resonate with feminist thought but find expression through the work of writers, artists, activists, and laborers who have not typically been considered feminist; others revisit specific moments in the history of Japanese feminisms in order to complicate or challenge the dominant scholarly and popular understandings of specific activists, practices, and beliefs. The chapters are contextualized by an introduction that offers historical background on feminisms in Japan, and a forward-looking conclusion that considers what it means to rethink Japanese feminism at this historical juncture.

Building on more than four decades of scholarship on feminisms in Japanese and English, as well as decades more on women’s history, Rethinking Japanese Feminisms offers a diverse and multivocal approach to scholarship on Japanese feminisms unmatched by existing publications. Written in language accessible to students and non-experts, it will be at home in the hands of students and scholars, as well as activists and others interested in gender, sexuality, and feminist theory and activism in Japan and in Asia more broadly.

Author information

Bullock Julia C. :

Julia C. Bullock is associate professor of Japanese literature and culture at Emory University.Kano Ayako :

Ayako Kano is professor in the Department of East Asian Languages and Civilizations, and core faculty member in gender, sexuality, and women’s studies at the University of Pennsylvania.Welker James :

James Welker is associate professor of cross-cultural studies at Kanagawa University in Yokohama, Japan.Frederick Sarah :

Sarah Frederick is associate professor at Boston University, where she teaches Japanese literature, film, and popular culture. She is also the translator of Yellow Rose by Yoshiya Nobuko.Julia C. Bullock (Editor)
Julia C. Bullock is associate professor of Japanese literature and culture at Emory University.

Ayako Kano (Editor)
Ayako Kano is professor in the Department of East Asian Languages and Civilizations, and core faculty member in gender, sexuality, and women’s studies at the University of Pennsylvania.

James Welker (Editor)
James Welker is associate professor of cross-cultural studies at Kanagawa University in Yokohama, Japan.

Reviews

Kumiko Fujimura-Fanselow, editor of Transforming Japan: How Feminism and Diversity Are Making a Difference:
This eclectic volume offers fresh and, in some instances, alternative interpretations, insights, and perspectives on key developments and events in the evolution of feminism in Japan and the impact and accomplishments of noted activists in feminist movements over the past century. Particularly fascinating are the chapters that unveil expressions of feminism in literary and artistic works hitherto given little attention by feminist scholars or even viewed as antithetical to feminism.

Jan Bardsley, author of Women and Democracy in Cold War Japan:
Bold and original, this interdisciplinary volume examines Japanese feminisms in fresh and surprising ways. Rogue writers, innkeepers, and Ikebana practitioners take their place alongside feminist heroes, educators, and activists. An excellent candidate for classroom use, this approachable, well-researched volume will no doubt incite student debate over what constitutes “feminism,” “activism,” and “Japanese feminisms.” An indispensable volume for all scholars of gender studies in Japan and beyond, Rethinking Japanese Feminisms gives us new ways to view the past and contemplate the future.

Frontmatter Free access PDF PDF	i
Contents Free access PDF PDF	v
Acknowledgments Free access PDF PDF	vii
Introduction Julia C. Bullock, Ayako Kano and James Welker Open Access PDF PDF	1
Part I. Rethinking Activism and Activists
1. Women’s Rights as Proletarian Rights: Yamakawa Kikue, Suffrage, and the “Dawn of Liberation” Elyssa Faison Open Access PDF PDF	15
2. From “Motherhood in the Interest of the State” to Motherhood in the Interest of Mothers: Rethinking the First Mothers’ Congress Hillary Maxson Open Access PDF PDF	34
3. From Women’s Liberation to Lesbian Feminism in Japan: Rezubian Feminizumu within and beyond the Ūman Ribu Movement in the 1970s and 1980s James Welker Open Access PDF PDF	50
4. The Mainstreaming of Feminism and the Politics of Backlash in Twenty-First-Century Japan Tomomi Yamaguchi Open Access PDF PDF	68
Part II. Rethinking Education and Employment
5. Coeducation in the Age of “Good Wife, Wise Mother”: Koizumi Ikuko’s Quest for “Equality of Opportunity” Julia C. Bullock Open Access PDF PDF	89
6. Flower Empowerment: Rethinking Japan’s Traditional Arts as Women’s Labor Nancy Stalker Open Access PDF PDF	103
7. Liberating Work in the Tourist Industry Chris McMorran Open Access PDF PDF	119
Part III. Rethinking Literature and the Arts
8. Seeing Double: The Feminism of Ambiguity in the Art of Takabatake Kashō Leslie Winston Open Access PDF PDF	133
9. Feminist Acts of Reading: Ariyoshi Sawako, Sono Ayako, and the Lived Experience of Women in Japan Barbara Hartley Open Access PDF PDF	154
10. Dangerous Women and Dangerous Stories: Gendered Narration in Kirino Natsuo’s Grotesque and Real World Kathryn Hemmann Open Access PDF PDF	170
Part IV. Rethinking Boundaries
11. Yamakawa Kikue and Edward Carpenter: Translation, Affiliation, and Queer Internationalism Sarah Frederick Open Access PDF PDF	187
12. Rethinking Japanese Feminism and the Lessons of Ūman Ribu: Toward a Praxis of Critical Transnational Feminism Setsu Shigematsu Open Access PDF PDF	205
13. Toward Postcolonial Feminist Subjectivity: Korean Women’s Redress Movement for “Comfort Women” Akwi Seo Open Access PDF PDF	230
14. Takemura Kazuko: On Friendship and the Queering of American and Japanese Studies J. Keith Vincent Open Access PDF PDF	251
Conclusion On Rethinking Japanese Feminisms Ayako Kano Open Access PDF PDF	267
Contributors Open Access PDF PDF	283
Index Open Access PDF PDF	289

Rethinking Japanese Feminisms

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