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Translating Womanhood in Late 19Th-Century Japan

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Translating Womanhood in Late 19Th-Century Japan View metadata, citation and similar papers at core.ac.uk brought to you by CORE provided by DSpace at Waseda University WASEDA RILAS JOURNALThe Ideal NO. Woman 5 and Jogaku zasshi: Translating Womanhood in Late 19th Century Japan The Ideal Woman and Jogaku zasshi: Translating Womanhood in Late 19th-Century Japan Hitomi YOSHIO issues to give poetic evidence to the new concepts Introduction being introduced. Serialized translations of longer In late 19th-century Japan, as the Meiji govern- poems and novels began to appear in the 1890s. The ment strove to create a modern nation-state under the magazine became an important site for Japan’s own slogan of Civilization and Enlightenment, various literary production, publishing stories and essays as issues surrounding women emerged as new important well as book reviews of recent publications. sites of discourse in the process of modernization. The most extensive study of Jogaku zasshi in Progressive intellectuals such as Fukuzawa Yukichi English to date is Rebecca Copeland’s Lost Leaves: (1834-1901) and other members of the Meirokusha Women Writers of Meiji Japan (2000), which situates made extensive efforts in the early 1870s to advance Jogaku zasshi as an important journal that contributed women’s social status as an important means to mod- to the development of women’s writing in modern ernize Japan. Self-consciously breaking with the Edo Japan.⑵ While there has been increasing attention period and aiming to revise what they saw as out- paid to Jogaku zasshi by Japanese scholars in the moded Confucian ideals of womanhood, these early recent decades, the scholarship in English has been educators advocated new images of Japanese women limited.⑶ This paper builds on previous studies of as citizens of the modern nation-state and a measure Jogaku zasshi by giving a comparative study of Meiji of civilization for the nation. Some of these discourses Japan and mid to late 19th-century England, which surrounding women and education developed in rela- saw a mass expansion of print culture and growing tion to changing practices of reading and writing, at a anxieties over shifting roles of women as the move- time when the notion of “literature” was undergoing ment for women’s rights and reforms began to take transformation, and the growth of journalism was cre- hold amidst social and economic changes. The paper ating a new reading public in the 1880s.⑴ focuses on the early years of the magazine as it gained This paper will focus on Jogaku zasshi (Women’s a strong literary focus and looked towards Victorian Education Magazine, 1885.7-1904.2), an influential England as the model. During this time, certain British mass-circulated magazine founded upon the principle women writers such as George Eliot and Charlotte of the advancement of women’s status in enlightened Brontë became key figures in presenting a model for society. Through the years of its publication, the co- educated Japanese women, as their works were trans- founder and chief editor Iwamoto Yoshiharu (1863- lated into Japanese and canonized as part of the wealth 1942) emerged as a powerful voice in promoting new of women’s writing. By examining a series of editori- ideals of womanhood for Japanese women based on als attributed to Iwamoto Yoshiharu and other key Christian thought, and in articulating the role of litera- essays from 1886 to 1890, the paper will show how ture in modern women’s education. As literature Jogaku zasshi translated Victorian notions of woman- became a newly contested notion in the mid-1880s, hood to articulate its own version of the ideal modern Jogaku zasshi came to play an important part in intro- woman and to advocate the reform of literature in the ducing Western works to its readers, particularly in context of women’s education in the mid-Meiji period. bringing to attention the wealth of European and American women’s writing in recent history. Short lit- What is Jogaku? erary quotations in English, many of which were of Three years into the magazine’s publication, Victorian origin, were interspersed throughout the Jogaku zasshi reflected on its brief history and 13 WASEDA RILAS JOURNAL NO. 5 explained the origin of the newly coined term jogaku scholar is gendered male, and his role is to “jogaku.” In an editorial piece titled “Jogaku no kai” guide women to emerge out of their deprived states (Understanding Jogaku, 1888.5.26, Jogaku zasshi), and to achieve their full potential. The repeated phrase the term is presented as a neologism that has no roots “regardless of the country or the era” makes this a in Sino-Japanese vocabulary (kango). Responding to global and timeless mission, giving universality to the critics who showed skepticism toward the magazine’s specific historical conditions of the rapidly moderniz- aim, the editorial clarifies that jogaku does not simply ing Japan. By educating women to become “ideal refer to “education for women” (joshi no kyôiku), but women” through gentle guidance, the editorial sug- represents an entirely new discipline: gests, the magazine would not only help the nation’s [Jogaku is] a discipline devoted to the study of women but also bring forth a civilized “new Japan” myriad truths related to women: her mind and (shin Nihon). body, her past and future, her rights and social “Jogaku no kai” also gives testimony to how the position, and various other matters relevant to her magazine situates itself in the wave of enthusiasm for present state.⑷ westernization in Meiji Japan by criticizing what they Using a sweeping rhetoric that extends to the “past,” saw as frivolous importation of Western manners and the “future,” and the “present,” the editorial clarifies fashion. Using English words like “kiss,” “engage- that this new field of study concerns not only women ment,” and “honeymoon” in katakana rendering, the but also the entire nation or the world. Because women editorial chides certain idle men and women of society have been excluded from various disciplines from and exempts the jogaku scholar from such tempta- psychology and arts, to business and politics, they tions: have been unable to fulfill their innate potential in Balls have become all the rage at Rokumeikan. contributing to the development of civilization. This With so many opportunities for mixed-company not only hinders women, but also limits the compre- gatherings in Japan today, things like western hensive development of knowledge itself. Thus, the clothes, shoes, corsets, shaking hands, “kiss” new discipline is important not only for women but for [kissu], “engagement” [engeejimento], and “hon- all of humanity. eymoon” [hanemuun] have become all too trendy. The new discipline of jogaku came into being, We jogaku scholars will not succumb to these therefore, to correct the neglect of women in the social trends, but will stand firm at the bank and survey and intellectual advances of the past, and to restore her the spectacle. It is certainly enjoyable, as cultured “natural power” (tenpu no kenryoku) in the present age and intelligent men, to entertain ladies at the din- by giving her a proper education. Using the rhetoric of ner table with our charm and wit, or reign as the evolutionism, the editorial explains the jogaku schol- sovereign of society by seeking the friendship of ar’s mission as follows: ladies. We shall not, however, throw ourselves It is the jogaku scholar’s duty to discover ideal into the noise of worldly affairs. Rather, it is our women [kajin] who are unknown or live in obscu- duty to sit in deep meditation behind our editorial rity, and lead her into the natural path of desks.⑹ evolution. Because women are by nature often With a tone of moral superiority, the editorial dis- looked down upon and treated poorly, regardless misses what they see as superficial appropriation of of the country or the era into which she is born, a western manners, and present their own mission with jogaku scholar must take upon himself, regardless solemn dignity. This passage is reflective of the maga- of the country or the era into which he is born, the zine’s stance to introduce progressive Western ideas role of an advocate, a supporter, a teacher and a while trying to preserve what were considered desir- guide – at times showing the way, at times able aspects of traditional notions of Japanese restraining – sometimes petitioner, sometimes femininity. taking on a thankless role – thus being a brother, Indeed, the magazine reflects this persona of the a friend and a family member, always aspiring for lofty jogaku scholar particularly in the early years. her happiness and convenience.⑸ The staff and contributors were mostly men, and every It is evident from the tone of the passage that the issue opens with a philosophical editorial piece, 14 The Ideal Woman and Jogaku zasshi: Translating Womanhood in Late 19th Century Japan which, though unsigned, scholars have largely attrib- for girls in middle-class families in England.⑼ The uted to Iwamoto Yoshiharu.⑺ Iwamoto was also one essay was an influential treatise on women’s education of the founding members of Meiji Women’s School upholding the doctrine of the “separate spheres,” in (Meiji jogakkô), a non-denominational Christian which a woman’s true place and power lies in the school for women, which put into practice the educa- domestic home where men can take shelter from the tional ideas articulated in the magazine. The magazine anxieties of modern life. In an exalted rhetoric that offered a wide range of subjects, from practical naturalizes the hierarchy of power, Ruskin presents an domestic matters such as clothing and hairstyle, sleep- ideal vision of womanhood as eternal and enduring, ing habits, pregnancy, and parenting, to social issues extending from the past into the future, erasing class such as anti-prostitution and temperance.
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