"Our women are yet in the very beginnings. They have only a low position in society, but little influence, and only a scant education. There is an infinite degree of difference between education and progress for the men and that of our Japanese women. They have not yet begun to take up any work. It is the period of formation rather than organization." Tsuda Umeko, "Letter to an American Friend," 1897 (Robins-Mowry 31)

"Departure cermonies for Ambassador Iwakura and his mission as they prepare to leave for the United States on December 23, 1871. Tsuda Umeko and the other girls preparing to study in the United States are seen in boat, lower right. Artist: Yamaguchi Hoshun. Form the collection of Meiji Shotoku Memorial Hall. Photo courtesy of Tokyo Bijitsu, K.K." (Robins-Mowry 45)

Tsuda Umeko (1864-1929) was one of the girls that accompanied the Iwakura Mission to the United States in 1871, as a result of the Japanese government's efforts to improve women's education. After graduating from Bryn Mawr, Tsuda Umeko went on to found the Academy of English Studies for Women, later known as Tsuda College, which was recognized as a superior institute for higher learning for women during the Meiji Period (Sievers 218).

The Meiji Restoration, which brought the Tokugawa Period to an end in 1867, marked a new beginning for Japan. The Meiji leaders embarked on a process of modernization, believing this to be the only guarantee of independence and defense against future international threats, and they encouraged Westernization as a means to modernization and wealth. During the first decade of Meiji rule, the government enacted a series of reforms which brought drastic changes to Japanese society. These reforms dismantled the traditional four class system in Japan, abolished feudal privileges, instated compulsory education, and promoted industrialization. The Meiji rulers were convinced that by emulating the Western world through rapid industrialization and modernization, Japan would achieve its desired position in the world (Varley 205-207).

The rapid transformation of Japanese society following the Meiji Restoration affected all sectors of society. In particular, the traditional role of Japanese women underwent a series of transformations. During the Tokugawa Period, women's lives centered around marriage, and they were expected to dedicate themselves to serving the family unit. Women were considered subordinate in society, and they remained in the home, completely dependent on their husband and his family. The Japanese quest for modernization during the Meiji Period altered the role which Japanese women had been expected to fulfill during the Tokugawa Period. The Meiji leaders saw women's contributions to society as an important aspect of Japanese progress and industrialization, and therefore encouraged women to seek an education and dedicate themselves to the good of the nation. At the same time, women were expected to remain focused on the family unit, and government initiatives involving the incorporation of women into Japanese society were often limited and contradictory. Nevertheless, the reforms of the Meiji Period inspired debate on the role of women in Japanese society, contributing to the women's rights movement which began to flourish toward the end of the Meiji Period.
 

Women and Modernization

In its determination to emulate Western society, the Japanese government encountered contradictions between various aspects of Japanese cultural traditions and the ideals of Western culture. Among these was the traditional role of women in Japanese society. In her book, Flowers in Salt, Sharon L. Sievers explores the difficulties which the Meiji leaders faced in their attempt to establish an appropriate role for Japanese women in the process of modernization. She comments that in their race to meet Western standards of civilization, the Meiji leaders confronted "one of the favored patriarchal myths of the nineteenth-century West: that the status of women was an important measure of any society's progress toward civilization" (Sievers 2). The leaders believed that improving the status of women was essential to gaining approval and respect from the West, but at the same time they were reluctant to alter the traditional role of women which had prevailed in the past. Therefore, the leaders embarked on a series of reforms which satisfied the international world, but did relatively little to change the actual status of women in Japanese society. Remarks Sievers: "Government initiatives relating to women in the first few years of the Meiji period were both superficial and contradictory; they reveal the difficulty of proposing even limited kinds of change when image rather than substance is the motivation" (10).

The government's main initiative concerning women dealt with education. New schools were opened up for women, and in 1871 the government agreed to a widely publicized mission which sent a group of girls to study abroad in the United States (see illustration). However, improvements in women's education were not far-reaching, and the mission which sent girls abroad had little impact other than improving Japan's image among Western countries (Sievers 10-13). The government enacted further reforms concerning prostitutes and concubines, neither of which produced noticeable improvement in the status of women in society. Sievers comments again on the Meiji reforms, arguing that: "…these initiatives were, for the most part, reactions to outside criticism or advice; there is no indication that they were the product of a central policy envisaging the participation of Japan's women in the process of modernization" (Sievers 11). The introduction of short hairstyles among the Japanese population proved to be a revealing event in terms of the government's attitude towards Japanese women: the government encouraged men to cut their hair short because it represented a progressive attitude, but when women began to catch on to the trend, the government prohibited them from adopting the new hairstyle. Thus revealing that despite new policies in regard to women, the Meiji government was not willing to allow them to contribute actively to Japanese modernization (Sievers 15).

The following years brought increased debate over the expected role of women in Japanese society. The Meiji Six Society, which was founded to discuss Western concepts, adaptation to new policies, and in particular the Western threat, began to discuss the need to reform the role of women in society, beginning with the family. Its members felt that improving the role of women in society would contribute to the progress of the country. Three main voices in this debate were Mori Arihori, Nakamura Masanao, and Fukuzawa Yukichi, who introduced the popular idea of "Good Wife: Wise Mother" (ryosai kenbo). They argued that women were important nurturers, guardians, and educators of children, advocating equality in marriage and the establishment of a women's domain in the home, although never demanding equal rights for women. The threat of government opposition at the time caused the debate to settle, as a result of a government drive to cut down on debate in favor of stability. Nevertheless, the group was important in bringing up revolutionary ideas for Japan (Sievers 16-25).
 

The Meiji Civil Code

In 1898 the Meiji Civil Code was enacted and revised to support the traditional Japanese family system. The importance of the family unit was emphasized, and the traditional patriarchal head of the family, or ie, was maintained. Numerous reforms were made in terms of marriage, adultery, divorce, and education, but women continued to hold a marginalized place in society and lacked any public role.

In "The Evolution of the Feminine Ideal," Joy Paulson discusses the policies of the Meiji Civil Code of 1898 in regards to women. Concerning marriage, the wedding was to be arranged by both families, and women under the age of 25 needed the consent of the family head to marry. The family of the husband was responsible for registering the marriage, and until this was done, the contract was not legally binding. In the case of adultery, a woman was severely penalized while a man received no punishment. The Meiji Civil Code of 1989 gave women the right to divorce their husbands "on grounds of cruelty, desertion, or serious misconduct, but not for infidelity" (Paulson 15). Because the husband always kept the children, and a woman who divorced her husband was often looked down upon in society, divorces initiated by women were fairly uncommon. In addition, women were given property rights, along with the right to serve as heads of their households and legal guardians of their children. Even so, these provisions contained many qualifications; for example, a woman could own land, but once she married she needed her husband's consent for all buying and selling contracts (Paulson 15). Clearly, despite the added rights which the Meiji Civil Code granted them, women during this period continued to be marginalized and prevented from holding public roles in society.
 

The Years 1890 through 1910

By 1890 the government had defined its policy toward women, and the following two decades proved especially important in the emergence of women's rights movements. At this point the Japanese government was working under two assumptions, which are presented by Sharon H. Nolte and Sally Ann Hastings in "The Meiji State's Policy Toward Women, 1890-1910". These were (1) that the family unit was the building block of the nation, and (2) that women were gaining increasing responsibility in maintaining the household. Women were encouraged to contribute to society, and the notion of "Good Wife; Wise Mother", introduced by Nakamura Masanao, continued to prevail. Nolte and Hastings write, "The orthodox 'good wife' was one who pursued whatever employment and education would serve her family and the society" (Nolte and Hastings 171).

Examining the advanced models of other industrialized countries, the Meiji leaders saw that women of all classes were also important economic contributors to modernization (Nolte and Hastings 171). Women became increasingly involved in light industries, particularly textiles. Sievers reports that from 1894 to 1912, women made up 60% of Japan's industrial labor. Parents, mainly out of economic necessity, sent their young daughters away from home to work in silk and cotton factories, where they worked under harsh conditions and received poor pay. Sievers comments:

…it can easily be argued that Japan's industrial revolution, the social costs of which have been underplayed until quite recently, was more damaging to women that to any other single group. To acknowledge the price women paid in Japan's effort to catch up and survive in a world dominated by Western imperialism requires trying to measure the immeasurable: death, despair, hopelessness, unrecovered lives. Sievers p85

Because the 1898 Civil Rights Code banned women from political involvement, women's organizations during this time were mainly literary or philanthropic. However, in 1911 the first feminist organization, Seitosha, or Blue Stocking Society, was founded in Japan. Its publication, Seito, was censored and eventually banned by the government in 1916, but the organization's membership carried over to the Association of New Women, which was founded in 1919. This organization advocated specific political objectives, concerning equal rights, better labor conditions, and women's suffrage, among others (Paulson 17).

The Meiji reforms clearly had a complex effect on the role of Japanese women during this time period. Because the government regarded them as important contributors to the family and society, women's rights were amplified. However, this amplification was limited and often contradictory, as Sievers argues, especially in the first decade of Meiji rule. The Meiji government was so focused on modernizing that women's rights, although furthered during this time period, often played a second hand role to government interests. Even so, this period proved to be an important starting point for the emergence of women's social and political movements in Japan.
 

Bibliography

Nolte, Sharon H. and Sally Ann Hastings. "The Meiji State's Policy Toward Women, 1890-1910."

Recreating Japanese Women, 1600-1945. Ed. Gail Lee Bernstein. Berkeley: University of

California Press, 1991. 151-174.

Paulson, Joy. "Evolution of the Feminine Ideal." Women in Changing Japan. Ed. Joyce Lebra, Joy

Paulson, and Elizabeth Powers. Stanford: Stanford University Press, 1976. 1-23.
 

Robins-Mowry, Dorothy. The Hidden Sun. Boulder: Westview Press, 1983.

Sievers, Sharon L. Flowers in Salt. Stanford: Stanford University Press, 1983.

Varley, H. Paul. Japanese Culture. Honolulu: University of Hawaii Press, 1984.