Notes PART ONE: THE ESSENTIALS OF SOCIETY: MEN AND WOMEN 1. In terms of fixed wages, Labour Ministry figures for 1994 show men to earn more than half as much again (161 per cent) as women (Asahi Shimbun Japan Almanac 1997, p. 100). After recruitment (when the gap in pay is smallest) men generally go on a ‘career escalator’, whereas women go on a ‘clerical escalator’. Career path and promotional opportunities are affected, among other things, by educational attain- ment. Whereas numerically a smaller percentage of matriculating male students (43 per cent) than female students (48 per cent) proceed to some form of tertiary education, a majority of females (52 per cent)— and almost no males (5 per cent)—merely attend a short-term junior college as opposed to a regular university, meaning that males typically have much stronger qualifications (Ministry of Education figures, in Asahi Shimbun Japan Almanac 1997, p. 240). 2. Management and Coordination Agency figures, in Asahi Shimbun Japan Almanac 1997, p. 48. 3. See for example Okonogi 86, p. 1. 4. See Smith 83, p. 128, for a vivid illustration of the often extreme degree of prioritisation of the company over self. Smith recounts an incident in 1979 when a male worker successfully tackled a robber. He had not realised that the robber was in fact armed with a knife, and when asked by the television news reporter if he would still have tackled the robber if he had known this, he replied that he wouldn’t have, because he might have been injured, had to take time off work as a result, and thereby inconvenience his company. 5. The ko¯ha and other types are also discussed in Buruma 85, esp. Chapter 8. 6. Van Wolferen 89, p. 251. 7. Seward 72, pp. 103 and 142, Taylor 85, p. 201, and Okonogi 86, p. 1. 8. Taylor 85, p. 45. 9. Buruma 85, p. 128. Note also the longstanding Japanese saying that ‘The womb is a borrowed thing’ (see Paulson 76, p. 5). 10. Leupp 95, p. 3, his italics. (Leupp does not necessarily discuss homo- sexuality in a ko¯ha context.) 11. Female impurity is discussed in the following chapter. 12. Leupp 95, pp. 20–1. 13. Leupp 95, p. 4. 14. Leupp 95, pp. 178–82. 15. See, for example, Woronoff 81, passim, Fukutake 82, p. 148, or Okonogi 86 for discussion of the gradual replacement of hard men such as the mo¯retsu-gata (fiercely determined type) by soft men such as the mai ho¯mu taipu (‘I value my home’ type) and datsu-sara (‘escaped 183 184 Notes salaryman’). Repeat surveys conducted by the Prime Minister’s Office also show a similar trend, with those prioritising work over private life decreasing slowly but steadily over the last twenty years. According to these surveys, the number of people in the early–mid-1990s clearly prioritising family life over work (39 per cent) exceeded those clearly prioritising work (23 per cent), but it should be noted that the respon- dents include women. (See the Japan Times, Weekly International Edition, 22–28 August 1994.) 16. A government report in 1992 indicated that 39 per cent of men felt that males should help more around the home (Japan Times, Weekly International Edition, 7–13 Dec. 1992), and a survey conducted in 1994 by the To¯kyo¯ Metropolitan Government indicated that around one- third of husbands actually do help around the home with cleaning, shopping, meal preparation and so on (To¯kyo¯ Metropolitan News, vol. 44, no. 3, Autumn 1994). A 1995 government white paper also noted that males now spend 60 per cent more time (122 minutes as opposed to 76) ‘home-making’ at the weekend than twenty years ago—a trend no doubt also reflective of the increasing spread of a five-day working week as well as a change in male attitudes. (See the Japan Times, Weekly International Edition, 15–21 April 1996.) 17. Tobin 92b, p. 19. 18. Figures are for 20-year-olds, recorded annually by the Ministry of Education since 1900. See Asahi Shimbun Japan Almanac 1997, p. 218. Women have shown a similar increase. Since 1991 heights have levelled off and, in the case of males, even declined slightly, adding a physical dimension to widespread concern over the perceived spiritual decline of the young. 19. The Toronto-based Harlequin publishing company conducts regular international surveys on this topic among women in twenty or so nations. The figures given here are selected and edited from survey results released early in 1996. Questions are multi-choice, with only one reply permitted in each case. Turkey is included here as a non- (Anglo)western control, all other countries in the survey (except Japan) being western. 20. The two main texts embodying this mythology are the Kojiki (Record of Ancient Things) of 712 and the Nihon Shoki (Chronicle[s] of Japan, also known as the Nihongi), of 720. Though produced in the early eighth century they had been commenced in the late seventh. Both are available in English translation, by Philippi (68) and Aston (1896/1972) respectively. 21. An account of Himiko is given in the Wei Chih (History of Wei), a Chinese chronicle written in AD 297. See the translation in Tsunoda et al. 64, vol. 1, pp. 4–7. 22. Sei Sho¯nagon is known for her notebook-style Pillow Book (Makura no So¯shi) of around 1002, and Murasaki Shikibu for her novel Tale of Prince Genji (Genji Monogatari) of around 1004. Both works are avail- able in several versions of English translation. 23. Ho¯jo¯ Masako (1157–1225) was the widow of Japan’s first permanent sho¯gun, Minamoto no Yoritomo (1147–99), and effectively ruled the Notes 185 country after his death, a feared and formidable figure. 24. I follow in particular Ehrenberg 89. 25. The best-known reigning empress, Suiko (554–628, r.593–628), had a male regent, her nephew Prince Sho¯toku (574–622), acting on her behalf for much of her reign, in fact from 594 till Sho¯toku’s death in 622. She was not suffering from any known incapacity. 26. Paulson 76, p. 10. 27. William and Helen McCullough comment that ‘As far as we know, no Heian [794–1185] woman ever wrote a single piece of prose in Chinese’, and also mention ‘unflattering references in tales to Sinitically learned ladies’ (W. and H. McCullough 80, vol. 1, p. 10). 28. Paulson 76, esp. pp. 7–9. 29. Smart and Hecht 82, p. 256. 30. Paulson 76, p. 7, and Pharr 83, p. 258. 31. See Paulson 76. 32. Derived from the teachings of Confucius (Kung Fu-tzu, c.551–479 BC), Confucianism stresses harmony, hierarchy, and proper order in human affairs and relations. Not surprisingly, it has often been endorsed by rulers in Japan and elsewhere wishing to promote stability and thereby safeguard their own rule. 33. Pharr 83, p. 258. 34. Hoshino 83, p. 186. 35. See Japanese Women Now, pp. 72–3, which also lists other places ‘off- limits’ to women, such as saké breweries and fishing boats. It seems that even today there is at least one mountain which women are not allowed to climb, Mt Omine. Some mountains have been barred to women for Shinto¯ reasons, others for Buddhist, since many Buddhist temples have been located on mountainsides. 36. See Aston 1896/1972, p. 13, and Paulson 76, p. 2. 37. One of the six reigned twice under different names, as Kyo¯goku 642–5 and as Saimei 655–61, giving seven reigns by empresses in those early days. The two later reigning empresses were Meisho¯ (1630–43) and Go- Sakuramachi (1762–70). Both reigned in a period when the imperial position was extremely nominal. 38. See Pharr 83, p. 258 and Paulson 76, pp. 5–8 regarding inheritance and the matrilocal marriage pattern known as mukoirikon (literally ‘son-in- law moving-in marriage’). See also Hane 88, pp. 4–5. Hane observes (p. 5) that even into the Kamakura period (1185–1333), daughters still had the right of inheritance, and a widowed mother controlled the family property. 39. Paulson 76, p. 6. 40. Pharr 83, p. 258, Paulson 76, p. 5, and Ackroyd 59, p. 32. 41. Pharr 83, pp. 258–9. 42. See Paulson 76, p. 11. 43. See Paulson 76, p. 11. 44. See Paulson 76, p. 11. 45. See Leupp 95, p. 184. 46. Hane 82, p. 79. 47. Pharr 83, p. 258. 186 Notes 48. See Leupp 95, p. 186. 49. See Leupp 95, p. 186. 50. Less is known about rural male sexual behaviour, but from various literary references it would appear that a similar pattern to that of the urban male prevailed—frequenting of pleasure quarters in the local town, purchase of both female and male prostitutes, bisexual behav- iour, and so on. See Leupp 95, p. 63. 51. Leupp 95 contains a convenient selection of such prints. 52. For a detailed study of Yoshiwara see Seigle 93, and for details on Ponto-cho¯ see Dalby 83. 53. Liza Crihfield Dalby, an American, has the rare distinction for a west- erner of having actually worked as a geisha. See Dalby 83 for a detailed discussion of the life and history of the geisha, and esp. pp. 54–7 regard- ing matters discussed here and in the following paragraphs. 54. Dalby 83, p. 55, makes the same point in very discreet language. 55. Dalby 83, pp. 109–10, and Seigle 83, pp. 179–80. The defloration cere- mony has long been important in the geisha world.