Hiratsuka Raichō
Women were once the sun and have become a pale moon reflecting men – they must rediscover their hidden self and win their rights.
Placement
Founder of the women’s journal “Seitō” (Bluestocking) in 1911: “In the beginning, woman was the sun” – drawing on Zen practice and Western individualism, she called women to recover a hidden self, and in 1920 co-founded the New Women’s Association, which campaigned for women’s political rights.
Key ideas
- “In the beginning, woman was the sun”
- Self-awakening through Zen
- Women’s political rights in Japan
Influence
Influenced by 2
Friedrich Nietzsche
influenced by
Hiratsuka’s Seitō manifesto (1911) drew on Zarathustra, just translated by her mentor Ikuta Chōkō, quoting it and calling for women’s hidden genius to be released. Hiratsuka Raichō, “Genshi josei wa taiyō de atta”, Seitō 1 (1911); E. I. Garaeva, Ežegodnik Japonija 48 (2019)
Evidence: AI draft
Friedrich Nietzsche › 1844–1900
Ellen Key
influenced by
Hiratsuka translated Ellen Key in Seitō from 1913 and, in the motherhood protection debate of 1918–19, followed Key in demanding state support for mothers. Seitō (1911–16); Hiratsuka Raichō, In the Beginning, Woman Was the Sun: The Autobiography of a Japanese Feminist, tr. T. Craig (2006)
Evidence: AI draft
Ellen Key › 1849–1926
Works
Opening statement of the journal Seitō: woman was once the sun; now she is a moon that shines by another’s light – let her recover her hidden genius.
Position
Her opening manifesto for Seitō – “In the beginning, woman was the sun” – declares that woman was once an authentic self shining by her own light and is now a sickly moon who shines by another’s. The genius hidden in every woman must be released by concentration and self-discovery; Hiratsuka drew the vocabulary of inner awakening from Zen practice and from Western individualism. Seitō became the forum of Japan’s “new women”, denounced by the press. In the “motherhood protection debate” of 1918–19 she argued, against Yosano Akiko, that the state should support mothers, a position influenced by Ellen Key. Her thought combines spiritual self-cultivation with concrete political demands.
Life & context
Hiratsuka Raichō (1886–1971), born Hiratsuka Haru in Tokyo, studied at Japan Women’s University, practised Zen and was involved in a scandal in 1908 when a failed double suicide with a writer was reported in the press. In 1911 she founded Seitō (“Bluestocking”), the first literary journal written and edited by women in Japan. In 1920 she co-founded the New Women’s Association, which campaigned for women’s political rights.
Further main works
- Autobiography: In the Beginning, Woman Was the Sun (1971)
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