Hiratsuka Raichō
Hiratsuka Raichō (, transliterated according to the historical kana orthography, February 10, 1886 – May 24, 1971) was a writer, journalist, political activist, anarchist and pioneering Japanese feminist. Life. Born Hiratsuka Haru (平塚 明) in Tokyo in 1886, the second daughter of a high ranking civil servant, and educated at Japan Women's University () in 1903, Hiratsuka came to be influenced by contemporary currents of European philosophy, as well as Zen Buddhism, of which she would become a devoted practitioner. Of particular influence to her was turn-of-the-century Swedish feminist writer Ellen Key, some of whose works she  translated into Japanese, and the individualistic heroine of Henrik Ibsen's "A Doll's House" (1879). In 1908 she attempted a double-suicide with Morita Sōhei, her teacher - a married writer - and a disciple of novelist Natsume Soseki, in the mountains of Nasushiobara, Tochigi. The pair were found alive on the mountain, but the attempted suicide by such a highly educated pair aroused widespread public criticism. Upon graduation from university, Hiratsuka entered the Narumi Women's English School where, in 1911, she founded Japan's first all-women literary magazine, "Seitō" (, literally Bluestocking). She began the first issue with the  words, "In the beginning, woman was the sun" () – a reference to the Shinto goddess Amaterasu, and to the spiritual independence which women had lost. Adopting the pen name "Raichō" ("Thunderbird"), she began to call for a women's spiritual revolution, and within its first few years the journal's focus shifted from literature to women's issues, including candid discussion of female sexuality, chastity and abortion. Contributors included renowned poet and women's rights proponent Yosano Akiko, among others. Even though many Japanese became exposed to the ideas of the modern feminist, due to rebuttals of Japan's media, most  did not take their ideas serious, thinking that Raichō and her comrades were attempting to steal a moment of fame in history. Exaggerated stories of their love affairs and nonconformism, once again spread by Japan's mainstream press, turned public opinion against the magazine and prompted Raichō to publish several fierce defenses of her ideals. Her April 1913 essay "To the Women of the World" () rejected the conventional role of women as "ryōsai kenbo" (, Good wife and wise mother): "I wonder how many women have, for the sake of financial security in their lives, entered into loveless marriages to become  one man's lifelong servant and prostitute." This nonconformism pitted "Seitō" not only against the society but the state, contributing to the censorship of women's magazines that "disturbed public order" or introduced "Western ideas about women" incompatible with Japan. The journal folded in 1915, but not before establishing its founder as a leading light in Japan's women's movement. Meanwhile, in 1914, Hiratsuka began living openly with her younger lover, artist Okumura Hiroshi, with whom she had two children out of wedlock and eventually married in 1941. From 1918 to 1919, Akiko Yosano started to claim the importance  of women's financial independence in the context of rapid development of capitalism in Japan after the end of World War I. Since Hiratsuka were influenced by Key's argument of the priority of motherhood through the translation of her works, she claimed that complete independence is an impractical expectation in the situation at that time, and added maternity protection with financial assistance by the government is necessary to establish women's national, social existence in the context of the difficult condition of women's workers, against Yosano's argument. Afterwards, Yamakawa Kikue and Yamada Waka participated in this debate , and it became a big social movement known as Maternity Protection Controversy (母性保護論争, Bosei-hogo ronso). In 1920, following an investigation into female workers' conditions in textile factories in Nagoya which further galvanized her political resolve, Hiratsuka founded the New Women's Association (, "Shin-fujin kyokai") together with fellow women's rights activist Ichikawa Fusae. It was largely through this group's efforts that the Article 5 of the Police Security Regulations—which, enacted in 1900, had barred women from joining political organizations and holding or attending political meetings—was overturned in 1922. Women's suffrage, however, remained elusive in  Japan. A further and more controversial campaign attempted to ban men with venereal disease from marrying. This unsuccessful campaign remains a point of controversy surrounding Hiratsuka's career in that it saw her aligned herself with the eugenics movement, asserting that the spread of V.D. was having a detrimental effect on the Japanese "race". Hiratsuka would join the cooperative movement in the 1930's, concluding that this would be the best option to include the most amount of people towards the main goal of social reform. The next several years, however, saw Hiratsuka withdraw somewhat from the public eye, saddled  with debts and her lover beset with health problems, although she would continue to write and lecture. In the postwar years, she emerged again as a public figure through the peace movement. In 1950, the day after the outbreak of the Korean War, she traveled to the United States together with writer and activist Nogami Yaeko and three other members of the Japan Women's Movement () in order to present US Secretary of State Dean Acheson with a request that a system be created in which Japan could remain neutral and pacifist. Hiratsuka continued to champion women's rights in  the postwar era, founding the New Japan Women's Association () in 1963 together with Nogami and noted artist Iwasaki Chihiro, and continuing to write and lecture up until her death in 1971. Legacy. While her career as a political activist covered many decades, Hiratsuka is primarily remembered for her stewardship of the "Seitō" group. As a leading light of the women's movement in early twentieth century Japan, she was a highly influential figure whose devotees ranged from pioneering Korean feminist author Na Hye-sok () who was a student in Tokyo during "Seitō"s heyday to anarchist and social critic Itō  Noe whose membership in the Seitō organization generated some controversy. Her postwar organization, the New Japan Women's Organization, remains active to this day.