Gendered power : educated women of the Meiji Empress' court / Mamiko C. Suzuki.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Suzuki, Mamiko C., author.

Series:

Michigan monograph series in Japanese studies ; [86]

Center for Japanese Studies monograph series ; [86]

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Shōken, Empress, consort of Meiji, Emperor of Japan, 1850-1914.

Shōken.

Nakajima, Shōen, 1863-1901.

Nakajima, Shōen.

Shimoda, Utako, 1854-1936.

Shimoda, Utako.

Women--Education--Japan--History.

Women.

Japan--History--Meiji period, 1868-1912.

Japan.

Japan--Social life and customs--1868-1912.

Physical Description:

1 online resource (159 pages).

Other Title:

Educated women of the Meiji Empress' court

Place of Publication:

Ann Arbor, Michigan : University of Michigan Press, [2019]

Summary:

Gendered Power sheds light on the sources of power for three prominent℗ women of the Meiji period: Meiji Empress Haruko; public speaker, poet, and diarist Nakajima Shoen; and educator and prolific author Shimoda Utako. By focusing on the role Chinese classics (kanbun) played in the language employed by elite women, the chapters focus on how Empress Haruko, Shoen, and Shimoda Utako contributed new expectations for how women should participate in a modernizing Japan. By being in the public eye, all three women countered criticism of and commentary on their writings and activities, which they parried by navigating gender constraints. The success or failure as women ascribed to these three figures sheds light on the contradictions inhabited by them during a transformative period for Japanese women. By proposing and interrogating the possibility of Meiji women's power, the book examines contradictions that were symptomatic of their struggles within the vast social, cultural, and political transformations that took place during the period. The book demonstrates that an examination of that conflict within feminist history is crucial in order to understand what radical resistance meant in the face of women-centered authority.

Contents:

Introduction

The Traditional and Modern Education of Empress Haruko and Her Court Women

From Kishida Toshiko to Nakajima ShoÌ⁴en: A Meiji Classical Chinese Foundation for a Modern Japanese Woman

Shimoda Utako and the Scandal of the Educated Female Body

Conclusion

Glossary

Notes

Bibliography.

Notes:

Includes bibliographic references.

Description based on information from publisher.

Contains:

Michigan Publishing (University of Michigan), issuing body.

ISBN:

9780472124169

0472124161