View - ResearchGate

Takeo Shibahara, Doshisha University, Japan
economic liberation of women. To this purpose, Nishikawa
organized the True New Women Association (Shin Shin Fujin
Kai) in 1913 and published the True New Women (Shin Shin
Fujin) journal. x To disseminate western feminists’ ideas, the
journal carried translated articles written by western
feminists, such as Olive Schreiner’s Woman and Labor and
M. Carey Thomas’s “The Theory of Women’s Suffrage.” These
articles analyzed women’s position in society as being
universally low. Yet, in these articles, western feminists
indicated that women were not simply accepting such
inferior position in society but rather struggling against
oppression and seeking liberation politically and
economically. The publication of those magazines, and
public access to them, signaled that Japan was moving to
consider and work for the liberation of women.
Yet for Tsuda, it seemed that Japanese women were
not ready to deal with those liberal ideologies actively.
Tsuda was anxious about the influence of the influx of these
feminists articles, including Schreiner’s and Thomas’s,
noting in 1915, “it is a strange period of change, and we
wonder what the results will be of so many varied and
incongruous elements of thought mixed together” (Tsuda,
1980, p. 503). In part, Tsuda was confused by her own
inner conflict between support for liberal and conservative
ideologies. A letter to M. Carey Thomas reflected Tsuda’s
mixed feelings when she decided to quit her ten-year service
for Peeresses’ School. She wrote, “…from the redtape and
conservatism which must surround a school like Peeresses’
School, where however great the honor of the connection, I
felt I was powerless to move against the current” (Tsuda,
1980, p. 390). The Peeresses’ School symbolized traditional
Japanese upper-class womanhood as well as conservative
bureaucracy headed by peers that stood against the forefront
of women’s rights issue. Nevertheless, Tsuda continued to
place high value on the national prestigious nature of such
conservatism. still felt mental attachment of aspects of such
conservatism.
Under the dynamics of socio-political, cultural and
economical change of the era, to construct gender and to
find meaning in life, assigned gender identity needed to be
deconstructed by women themselves. In fact, Tsuda,
suggested that women had an opportunity to take action for
231