The Modern Murasaki

Writing by Women of Meiji Japan

Rebecca Copeland, Melek Ortabasi, Rebecca Copeland, Melek Ortabasi

• Publisher: Columbia University Press
• Year: 2006
• eBook ISBN: 9780231510660
• Topic: Literature
• Subtopic: Asian Literary Criticism
• Index: Literature

The first anthology of its kind, The Modern Murasaki brings the vibrancy and rich imagination of women's writing from the Meiji period to English-language readers. Along with traditional prose, the editors have chosen and carefully translated short stories, plays, poetry, speeches, essays, and personal journal entries. Selected readings include writings by the public speaker Kishida Toshiko, the dramatist Hasegawa Shigure, the short-fiction writer Shimizu Shikin, the political writer Tamura Toshiko, and the novelists Miyake Kaho, Higuchi Ichiyo, Tazawa Inabune, Kitada Usurai, Nogami Yaeko, and Mizuno Senko. The volume also includes a thorough introduction to each reading, an extensive index listing historical, social, and literary concepts, and a comprehensive guide to further research.

The fierce tenor and bold content of these texts refute the popular belief that women of this era were passive and silent. A vital addition to courses in women's studies and Japanese literature and history, The Modern Murasaki is a singular resource for students and scholars.

MIYAKE KAHO

(1868–1944)

Rebecca L. Copeland

MIYAKE KAHO is often referred to as the first woman writer of the modern period—a provocative distinction that nevertheless warrants cautious regard.¹ A naming of firsts assumes there were no women writers in advance of Kaho, and such was not the case.² Recent scholarship has shown that women wrote throughout the preceding Tokugawa period (1600–1868). Moreover, a variety of women published in periodicals before 1888, when Kaho published “Yabu no uguisu” (Warbler in the Grove). Kishida Toshiko’s essays began appearing in 1884, for example, and in 1887 she published the little-known “Zen’aku no chimata” (The crossroads of good and evil). But since the latter was an adaptation of Lord Edward Bulwer-Lytton’s Eugene Aram (1832) and not an original work, the distinction of “first” is typically pinned on Kaho.

The term “modern” also invites scrutiny. Although Kaho clearly reveals concern with contemporary social issues, as I shall discuss below, her early works stand, not surprisingly, with one foot rooted firmly in the literary past, a tendency not uncommon to other writers of this era, both male and female. “Warbler in the Grove,” is recognized as Kaho’s debut piece. It demonstrates an important debt to the character sketches of her contemporaries, notably Tsubouchi Shōyō (1859–1935), which were in turn redolent of the literary strategies of an earlier age. Notable in this regard is the language of the text—a mixture of classical narrative and colloquial dialogue—and the polyvocality of the text. The story lacks the unifying perspective of a main protagonist, preferring multiple perspectives and dramatic sketches to the narrative strategies of character development and psychological realism that are usually identified with literary modernity. Readers will find that scenes unfold with a dramatic flourish reminiscent of Kabuki theater. Information is often gained through eavesdropping, characters meet suddenly and under unlikely circumstances, and, most important, the narrative progression of the story is almost exclusively dependent on dialogue, which in the original is rendered in a playscript style.³ The story that emerges thus is lively and robust, full of chatter and local flavor. However, the concerns that Kaho addresses—excessive Westernization, social responsibility, marriage, and education for women—were topics of contemporary debate.

FIGURE 3.1 Miyake Kaho (1868–1943)

FIGURE 3.2 Miyake Kaho in Western dress

Part 1 of this story is set in the Rokumeikan (Deer-cry) Pavilion, a lavish rococo-style building constructed in 1883 as part of a government-sponsored campaign to “demonstrate the high level of civilization in Japan and thus help persuade the Western powers to revise the unequal treaties imposed upon Japan.”⁴ Kaho, who came of age during the heyday of the Rokumeikan era, enjoyed the excitement and energy of the social functions held there. In her 1939 autobiographical essay “Watashi no ayunde kita michi—Omoide no hitobito” (The path I took—The people I remember), she writes of rushing with her classmates to the beauty parlor, where they would have their hair arranged in fancy coiffures and their bodies fitted into luxurious ballroom gowns—with bustles and bodices—properly laced.⁵ But by the time Kaho wrote “Warbler in the Grove,” the era of the Rokumeikan was waning. Blind infatuation with Westernization, which for some was synonymous with the catchphrase bunmei kaika (civilization and enlightenment), had become the target of much criticism, and those who, like Count Shinohara in “Warbler,” imitated Western customs with no real appreciation of the implications of their actions, were held up to ridicule. Intellectual leaders called for a more moderate approach to modernization, and Meiji youth were encouraged to learn from other countries but strive to retain that which would be of greatest benefit to Japan.

FIGURE 3.3 Woodcut of a dance party at the Rokumeikan

For Kaho and her peers, individual success was meaningless if it did not benefit the greater national good. Readers of “Warbler” will notice that men who seek only to benefit themselves do not fare well. Even the Western models of George Washington and Otto von Bismarck do not earn favor because their contributions, while impressive, did not better the world, or so Kaho’s character Tsutomu argues. Successful characters lead lives that are productive and promising. The young Ashio becomes a prominent engineer, Saitō and Miyazaki are important educators, and Tsutomu—educated abroad, titled, and scion of a wealthy estate—is poised to make significant contributions to the Japanese government. All of Kaho’s successful characters achieve their good fortune by virtue of their own hard work. In this respect, they embody another important Meiji catchphrase: risshin shusse (self-establishment and public advancement). Given the reforms in the governmental and educational systems, it was assumed that access to success was available to all and any who distinguished themselves with their hard work and the sincerity of their endeavors.

FIGURE 3.4 Frontispiece for Warbler in the Grove; Hamako, left; Hideko, right; and Namiko, lower center

Personal advancement and social responsibility were not exclusive to men. Women of Kaho’s generation felt equally called to serve the nation, though the arenas in which they might operate were distinct. Educational reforms had provided women greater access to a variety of institutions of higher learning—some sponsored by the government, others operated privately by either Japanese educators or foreign missionaries. Kaho experienced the gamut of what the Meiji period had to offer. After enrolling her briefly in the local government-run elementary school, her father moved her to the private Atomi Academy for Women, which had been founded in 1875 as a finishing school for girls from wealthy and aristocratic families. Here, Kaho was trained in calligraphy, art, and arithmetic in addition to the Japanese and Chinese classics. She studied traditional Japanese poetry, or waka, in Nakajima Utako’s Haginoya, the conservatory Higuchi Ichiyō also attended. Kaho studied the English language at the Sakurai Women’s School (later known as Joshi Gakuen), run by the Japanese Christian Yajima Kajiko (1839–1922). After a brief sojourn at the Meiji Women’s School, another private Christian institution, Kaho finally made her way to the highly competitive Government Normal School for Women (presently Ochanomizu Women’s University) in the fall of 1886. It was while she was a student here that she wrote “Warbler in the Grove.”

It is surely not surprising therefore that several of Kaho’s female characters are “girl students,” or jogakusei, and that much of her story, most notably part 6, seems intent on highlighting the positive nature of education for women. The “girl student” was not beloved by all. As Namiko notes in part 6, many were appalled by the sight of this new breed of woman strutting along public avenues with her books and knowing looks. At the same time, the girl student threatened to replace the geisha as the female sex object of choice in more and more stories, prints, and paintings. Unlike the courtesan, who was often employed for her tragic, as well as erotic, potential, the girl student was usually the target of satire, whether intellectually or sexually. Her appearance in what had heretofore been largely a male sphere clearly unsettled her male counterparts, whose only defense against this incursion was to belittle the offender. She was thus typically portrayed as either wantonly permissive or too bookish to be attractive.

Set against this context, Miyake Kaho’s “Warbler” offers us a view of the girl student from the perspective of the girl student herself. To offset the negative images represented by her superficially Western character, Hamako, and the brazenly aggressive girl students of the 1870s, Kaho gives readers Namiko, who is both wise and attractive but also modest and generous. More significantly, Namiko recognizes the importance of marriage. Although several of her classmates vow never to wed, for Namiko, a woman’s true calling is in marriage, but (and the distinction is important) in a marriage that is made willingly and out of a mutual attraction.

The marriage most central to the story is that of Shinohara Tsutomu. He had been adopted into the Shinohara family as a boy with the intention that he would marry Hamako and succeed to the family name. This practice of adopting a son-in-law was not unusual in families that lacked male heirs. Tsutomu’s refusal of the modern Hamako in favor of the old-fashioned Hideko led many readers to assume Kaho was suggesting a return to traditional values.⁶ But a careful look at Hideko’s characterization reveals that, while Hamako’s modernity is only a very thin veneer, Hideko’s self-sufficiency and integrity embody the very values of Meiji’s “self-establishment and public advancement.”

Unlike Hamako, who studies violin, piano, and other subjects with no “practical” application, Hideko is gifted in Japanese poetry, which Tsutomu lauds as simple yet profound, requiring “an exceedingly refined sensibility.” Her education, we are told, was acquired at the Shimoda Utako Academy for Women, a real institution. Formerly a tutor in the imperial court, Utako (1854–1936) opened her school for women in 1881, where she primarily taught the aristocratic elite in the Chinese and Japanese classics, poetry, calligraphy, history, moral ethics, embroidery, and so on. Kaho’s character Hideko withdraws from the Shimoda Utako Academy when her parents die so as to conserve the family inheritance. She devotes her attention to knitting and with her skill and industry earns just enough to provide for herself and her younger brother, Ashio. Twenty-first century readers may find the mention of knitting a cliché for feminine domesticity. But in late-nineteenth-century Japan, knitting was an impressive new skill, imported (along with woolen yarn) from the West. A smartly knitted wool shawl, a trendy item at the time, could fetch a handsome sum. Hideko’s piecework, while demure, is also surprisingly modern.

In many respects, the widow Osada offers an antithesis to the maidenly Hideko. Osada is also self-sufficient, being able to rely on the property left by her late husband. But, whereas widows were expected to live chastely, Osada uses her position to reel in the young bureaucrat Yamanaka. Kaho casts Osada as the “poison woman,” or dokufu. This figure was typified in the Meiji period by the infamous Takahashi Oden (1850–1879), ^a murderess, who became synonymous with female excess and criminality.⁷

Miyake Kaho’s portrayal of the lustful Osada and her reiteration of the speech of the lower classes earned criticism from some quarters.⁸ Kaho was the daughter of a former samurai who was now a high-level government official. She had been afforded the best education money could buy and had enjoyed the privileges of the upper class. It was therefore thought unseemly that a young lady with Kaho’s upbringing, who should have been a “daughter in a box”(see Kishida Toshiko’s essay in this volume), would reveal such familiarity with society’s riff-raff. These detractors aside, for the most part Kaho’s story was ...

Table of contents

• Cover 
• Half title
• Seires Page
• Title
• Copyright
• Contents 
• Preface
• Introduction: Meiji Women Writers
• Meiji Women’s Poetry
• Kishida Toshiko (1863–1901)
• Miyake Kaho (1868–1944)
• Higuchi Ichiyō (1872–1896)
• Tazawa Inabune (1874–1896)
• Kitada Usurai (1876–1900)
• Shimizu Shikin (1868–1933)
• Hasegawa Shigure (1879–1941)
• Nogami Yaeko (1885–1985)
• Mizuno Senko (1888–1919)
• Tamura Toshiko (1884–1945)
• Further Reading
• List of Contributors
• Index