著者

広瀬 玲子

出版者

ジェンダー史学会

雑誌

ジェンダー史学 (ISSN:18804357)

巻号頁・発行日

vol.2, pp.35-48, 2006

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In Japan, the expression "New Women" is often applied to those women who published the magazine <I>Seito</I>. The women, including Hiratsuka Raicho, wanted to improve the lot of Japanese women, and they criticized the "good wife, wise mother" ideal taught at girls' schools at the time, an ideal which effectively relegated all females to the status of servants. Among the women, Hiratsuka Raicho's contribution stands out. She identified the marriage system as "a woman's life-long subjection to a husband's power." She pioneered and advocated what came to be known as "partnership life," in which a woman would never have to depend on her partner, and Raicho dared to become a "single mother."<BR>It has been pointed out that Raicho's courageous behavior was influenced by the works of the early feminist Ellen Key. Key's ideas were initially introduced to Japan at the end of the Meiji era. Raicho read some early works as soon as they became available, and she started to translate <I>Love and Marriage</I> in 1913. It took some two years to complete the translation. At the same time, she physically took up "partnership life." In 1919, she further translated and published <I>The Renaissance of Motherhood</I>.<BR>Perhaps surprisingly, a Japanese man, Honma Hisao, was also active in translating and introducing Ellen Key's works during the same period. Initially appearing in the liberal period of "Taisho Democracy," Ellen Key's thoughts were welcomed not only by women but also by men. However, it is debatable whether or not Ellen Key's ideas were really understood and accepted in the same way that Raicho embraced them as a guiding compass in her life. In this paper, we will try to clearly define the characteristic differences concerning the understanding of western women's liberation as it was interpreted by both Hiratsuka Raicho and Honma Hisao.