Women In Changing Japan

Joyce C Lebra

• Publisher: Routledge
• Year: 2019
• ISBN:
  9781000011074
• Edition: 1
• Topic: Literature
• Subtopic: Literary Criticism
• Index: Literature

It is a time when women in many parts of the world are questioning the roles, life styles, and values by which women have lived for centuries. The contributors are American women engaged in studying various aspects of the life patterns of Japanese women in many walks of life and have published their findings in this volume. We come from a variety

Chapter 1
Evolution of the Feminine Ideal

The traditional image of Japanese women has evolved, while the status of women has devolved, in response to the influences of Buddhism, Confucianism, and the Samurai ethic. Is it possible to see the Japanese woman as she was before these cultural determinants, stimulated by Chinese influence, produced the woman held to be ideal by Japanese society up to World War II? Have there been changes in that ideal since World War II?

The forest surrounding the shrine honoring Japan’s supreme deity, the sun goddess Amaterasu, is pervaded by a sense of Japan’s mythic feminine cosmogenesis and matriarchal antiquity. But there is no recorded history of matriarchy for women to point to. We can only consult the ancient myths to discover the indigenous Japanese woman.

The Japanese had no written language for recording history until the Chinese language was introduced. The Kojiki [Record of Ancient Things], compiled in 712, and the Nihongi [Chronicles of Japan], 720, are the chief Japanese sources of early Japanese history. As historical accounts, however, they are marred by several factors. Written with the political aim of strengthening the ruling dynasty, the contents are selective. Furthermore, not only were they written in Chinese, but Japanese scholars had for three centuries been influenced by Chinese literature, Chinese philosophy, and Chinese patriarchy. Nevertheless, as the earliest official written records they are extremely valuable guides to Japanese myth, legend, and history.

Reflecting the presence of both Japanese and Chinese thought, the Kojiki and the Nihongi contain strong-spirited female deities as well as repressed wives. This tension between Japanese and Chinese culture affects the status of women up to the final codification of the female image during the Tokugawa period (1600–1867).

Japan’s creator-goddess, Izanami, was strong and free spirited. In the Nihongi¹ version of the creation myth Izanami and her brother, Izanagi, have created the islands of Japan and are planning to populate the islands with gods and goddesses. They circle the heavenly pillar and Izanami, meeting Izanagi, exclaims spontaneously, “How delightful. I have met with a lovely male.” Unfortunately, her exuberance is curbed by Izanagi, who insists she remain silent until he, the superior male, has spoken. The choice of human sexual reproduction as the means of heavenly creation indicates a positive attitude toward sex on the part of the ancient writers. The starring role played by the female probably parallels her actual role in Japan before Confucianism; but the injunction on the female to remain silent until the male has spoken implies Chinese patriarchal influence.

Izanami’s spirit remains untrammeled to the end of her life. Giving birth to the fire god, Izanami is burned and dies. Weeping and lamenting his loss, Izanagi follows her to the Land of Darkness. She tells him she cannot return with him to heaven, and instructs him not to look at her. Izanagi secretly lights a torch and, seeing her putrefying body, realizes he has been polluted by the presence of death, and flees. Shamed and angered, Izanami pursues him. Blocking her path, he faces her and breaks their troth—pronounces the divorce formula. She threatens to strangle one thousand of his people each day if he divorces her. His response is a counter-threat to cause fifteen hundred people to be born each day. A remarkable end to a relationship which produced the beautiful islands and kindly deities of Japan, the story contains female sacrifice and divorce as well as a strong woman.

The brightest child produced by Izanami and Izanagi was Amaterasu, a beautiful girl who was promptly named for the sun and given the heavens to reign over. In her relations with her brother, the storm god Susano-o, who, because of his troublesome behavior, has been sent to rule the earth, Amaterasu displays her spirit and strength. When she hears that Susano-o has asked to visit her in heaven, she suspects his intention is to rob her of her queendom. She arms herself and, meeting him with a mighty cry of defiance, insists he demonstrate the purity of his intentions. Their quarrel is very likely “an echo of quarrels between a woman ruler in a matriarchal society and a vigorous brother or other male relative jealous of her power.”²

Allowed to stay, Susano-o displays his troublesome character. Amaterasu tolerates his mischief to a point. When he destroys the banks of her paddy fields and lets horses in among the rice plants, she exercises forbearance. But when, by his crude behavior, he pollutes her palace she is outraged and withdraws to a cave, leaving the world in darkness.

The plaint of Queen Suseri-Bimi in the Kojiki³ illustrates an oppressed wife. She complains to her husband, Opo-Kuni-Nusi, that while he has wives “like the young grass” on every island, she, “being a woman,” has but one husband. Suseri-Bimi’s predicament foreshadows that of the Heian women, confined within their homes while their men were free to wander.

Chinese records state that from A.D. 147 to 190 Japan was divided by civil war and anarchy until the rise of a woman ruler, Pimiku (sun princess). She was old and unmarried. By her skill in magic she gained favor with the people who made her their queen. When she died, a great tumulus was raised over her and more than a thousand attendants followed her in death. A king was raised to the throne and civil war again broke out. Order was not restored until a relative of Pimiku, a girl of thirteen, was made queen. Chinese travelers to Japan during China’s Wei Dynasty (220–265), impressed by the frequency of female rule, refer to Japan as the “Queen Country.” They also mention polygamy, writing that men of high rank had four or five wives. The women were faithful, they said, and not jealous.⁴

It is a mixture, then, of fact and myth, Japanese and Chinese thought, which is presented in the early Japanese chronicles. From about A.D. 600 written documents were available to Nihongi compilers, so a transition can be made from myth to history.

Six empresses ascended the throne during the two centuries following 592, ruling a total of 113 years. These two centuries were crucial to the development of the imperial institution. Written histories, the Kojiki and the Nihongi, established the Yamato clan as the legitimate imperial clan by “proving” its descent from the sun goddess. The Seventeen Article Constitution of 604, the Taikwa Reform Edict of 645, the Taihō Code of 702 and its revised version, the Yōrō Code, all served to strengthen imperial rule by introducing Chinese methods of government.

It appears that during this early foundation-laying phase of Japanese history female rulers functioned in an interim capacity, preventing succession disputes and providing a stabilizing effect. Accomplishments during their reigns have often been attributed to male regents. The larger-than-life reputation of Crown Prince Shotoku Taishi, reputed author of the Seventeen Article Constitution, completely overshadowed the reign of his aunt, the Empress Suiko, a skillful and functional ruler in her own right.

During the reign of Empress Gemmyō the first permanent capital was established at Nara, and the Taihō Code was carefully revised to make it more acceptable to indigenous Japanese custom.

Women were also used by politically ambitious families, notably the Soga and later the Fujiwara, to consolidate their relationship with the imperial family. Daughters and nieces from those families were married to all possible heirs to the throne.

Historians often say that this period is unusual for its large number of female rulers, intimating that there was an unexplained increase unique to the period. This statement ignores the evidence in mythology and the ancient Chinese records of earlier female rule. It also under-emphasizes the fact that women were suddenly and effectively prevented from ruling after the reign of Empress Kōken in the eighth century.

Buddhist influence was on the rise even before Kōken’s reign. Her father, Emperor Shomu, had very nearly made Buddhism a state religion. As his successor, Empress Kōken received the brunt of the court’s anti-Buddhist reaction. The Fujiwaras were also gaining ascendancy over the throne as they improved their political position by skillful exercise of marriage politics.

Kōken was an unmarried ruler, a feature which invites speculation. Her relationship with the Buddhist monk, Dōkyo, incensed the Fujiwaras—not because of her liaison as such but because of the possibility that a monk, over whom they had no control, might assume the throne. Between them, Kōken and Dōkyo commanded enough respect (for the throne and for Buddhism) to hold off opposition, but when Kōken died, Dōkyo was banished by the Fujiwaras. Kōken was succeeded by a male. When he died, the council of ministers, swayed by Fujiwara influence, refused to elevate a woman to the throne. This custom continues to the present time. Kōken remains discredited, a symbol of feminine frailty.

Just as women were kept from the throne by custom rather than law, so their status was defined by custom. From the descriptions of female deities in the myths and the numerous women rulers between the sixth and eighth centuries, it can be assumed that the status of women was similar to that of men. In the Nihongi, the childless Princess Kasuga, grieved that her name will become extinct, is granted a granary “to bear her name for ten thousand generations.”⁵ At some point, in the name of political stability, a choice must be made between matrilineal and patrilineal descent. No doubt the threat to Fujiwara power by Kōken precipitated the shift to male rule, but custom protected the status of women for several centuries.

The Taihō Code, 702, and its revised version, the Yōrō Code, 718, based as they were on Confucianism, abolished the matriarchal system inherent in Japan’s clan organization. They established a patriarchal system, called for the subjection of women in the Confucian manner, and discriminated against women in matters of property, marriage, and divorce. But, as we have seen, the codes were unevenly and incompletely accepted by Japanese society. In the case of women especially, the code “remained in many respects little more than a legal fiction or a set of abstract ethical principles, and the actual conditions of women, particularly outside the capital, had never been brought down to the level it had set.”⁶ Yet, the groundwork was laid for the loss of female autonomy. A Japanese proverb, “The womb is a borrowed thing,” reflects the growing view of women’s adjunctive role as bearer of the male line.

The difference between law and custom can most clearly be seen in the marriage residence customs of the Heian period (794–1185). In 794 the capital was moved to Heian Kyō (Kyoto) to escape the “baleful influence of Buddhism” at Nara and to gain river access to the sea. Though temporarily escaping religious interference, the imperial court eventually became so entangled in ritual and ceremony it very nearly strangled to death. The first Heian emperor, Kammu, was also the strongest. His successors were unable to resist the influence of the nobles which replaced Buddhist influence. The Fujiwara family continued to strengthen its position by marrying its women to heirs to the throne. The success of this policy was due to the marriage residence customs. The Taihō and Yōrō codes had prescribed a Chinese patrilocal system in which the bride is brought to live in a subordinate position within the groom’s family, but literature of the period describes a completely different system.⁷

Three main types of marital residence customs occur in society: patrilocal, in which husband and wife take up residence with the husband’s parents; matrilocal, in which they reside with the wife’s parents; and neolocal, the establishment of a separate independent household. Less common is a fourth t...

Table of contents

• Cover
• Half Title
• Title
• Copyright
• Dedication
• Preface
• Foreword
• CONTENTS
• About the Contributors
• 1 Evolution of the Feminine Ideal
• 2 Women in Rural Japan
• 3 Women in Factories
• 4 “Office Ladies”
• 5 Women in Family Businesses
• 6 Women in Service Industries
• 7 Bar Hostesses
• 8 Women in Teaching
• 9 Women in the Professions
• 10 Women in Media
• 11 Women in the Political System
• 12 Women in Sports
• 13 Women and Suicide
• 14 Conclusions
• Bibliography