Womansword: What Japanese Words Say about Women

by Kittredge Cherry

Womansword is an insightful look at Japanese words concerning women and what they reveal about the status of women in modern Japan. In a collection of short, lively essays, author Kittredge Cherry considers the connotations, usage, and context of several hundred common words and phrases
related to female identity, girlhood, marriage, mothering, working, sex, and aging. These Japanese words offer a new perspective on issues that are central to the lives of women everywhere.

We learn, for instance, that an "intruder wife" is one who snags a husband by cooking for him every night, cleaning up for him, and generally coddling him till he realizes he can't live without her (but who lets him do the actual proposing); that Barbie didn't sell well in Japan till she was
transformed into a cuter, shorter, less glamorous, younger version; that families with no sons to carry on the family name sometimes "adopt" one by marrying their daughter to a man who agrees to take their name, join their household, and generally adapt to their ways; that "honorable bag" (ofukuro)
is an affectionate term a son may use to refer informally to his mother; and that people do not usually greet close relatives - even after a long separation - with a hug, but with a bow.

Womansword is a thought-provoking book that paints a vivid picture of contemporary Japanese women, in all their layered and often contradictory roles.

Genres: Japan, Nonfiction, Japanese Literature, Language, Feminism, Womens, Gender

160 pages, Paperback

Published August 9, 2002

About the author

Kittredge Cherry is a lesbian Christian author, minister and art historian. She founded Jesus in Love, an online resource for LGBT spirituality and the arts. Cherry was ordained by Metropolitan Community Churches and served as its National Ecumenical Officer, advocating for LGBT rights at the National Council of Churches and World Council of Churches. She holds degrees in journalism and art history from the University of Iowa, and a master of divinity degree from Pacific School of Religion. Her books include Lambda Literary Award finalist Art That Dares: Gay Jesus, Woman Christ (AndroGyne Press), Hide and Speak (HarperSanFrancisco) Womansword (Kodansha International) and her Jesus in Love novels. The New York Times Book Review praised her “very graceful, erudite” writing style. Based in Los Angeles, she writes about LGBT spirituality and the arts at Huffington Post and the Jesus in Love Blog.

Reviews

[Melina · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was pretty cool. I read this in college. The book dissects the way Japanese words are written and gives you a short essay on each one. One of the more obvious examples is the Japanese word for "gossip" is the character for "woman" repeated three times. Get three chicks together and you know what's going to happen. Or, you might refer to your mother as "Honorable Bag."

Good stuff.

[Mauri · Rating 2 out of 5]

If there is one thing that can be derived from this book, it is that Japanese is highly "interpretable" and therefore, at the mercy of linguists.

This is definitely one of those books that shouldn't have been re-printed without some sort of caveat: "This book was first printed 15 (now 20) years ago. As you might imagine, things have changed a bit."

The "packaging" of the book (colorful cover, small format, easy to read layout, modern look) is a bit of a deception. This is a book meant to be read for fun! it says, when in reality, its original date of publication should really be taken into account by the reader. I wince at the thought of someone travelling to Japan with all of these examples filed into their head.

[Pandora · Rating 4 out of 5]

Seeing as it was written 40 years ago, it seems a bit churlish to point out that parts of this book (especially involving sex work and pornography) are a bit dated.
My Japanese is very basic, and I wonder how many of these phrases are still used by Millennial Japanese speakers?
Still a great read if linguistics, Japan and feminism are in your Venn diagram of interests.

[Rae · Rating 3 out of 5]

Although it is quite dated, this book is still a really intriguing look at Japanese words and culture that revolves solely around women and their lives. I quite enjoyed it.

[David · Rating 4 out of 5]

I found this book to be interesting in part because I spent three years in Japan while serving in the US Air Force, studied Japanese language, met and married a Japanese woman. From that background, I was already aware that Japanese language has many different words for men and women to use that generally put the female in a lower position. This author provides a lot of these words including historical context that gives perspective of how words can culturally establish and reinforce class and status of men and women relative to each other. My wife will normally speak English to Japanese men to avoid this cultural positioning game. It may be a bit more challenging for those who have had no exposure or experience with Japanese language, but curiosity may prevail. I think the author has done a great job in presenting this material.

[Te Mari · Rating 5 out of 5]

Clever and fascinating research on gender representation in the Japanese language. Personally, I should say, the situation is getting better with the young generation in Japanese society. My husband asked me not to call him "shujin"　主人　but just "otto" 夫. Hopefully, he will not call me "kanai"　家内, too :D

[Helen Pugsley · Rating 5 out of 5]

It's gotta be 30 now, but it got real honest. That's pretty dope.

[Emma · Rating 4 out of 5]

The title has a double meaning intended by the author: you can read it as 'woman’s word', meaning words use to talk about women, but also as 'woman sword', highlighting the author’s ultimate purpose to “cut incisively to the heart of cultural assumptions”.

Check my review here:
https://wordsandpeace.com/2024/11/22/...

[Aurelio · Rating 4 out of 5]

No muchas novedades

Aunque se anuncia como nueva edición, las novedades son pocas y no se han actualizado los datos: las encuestas referidas a. Ada pasó son de los años 80. Lástima, porque el libro sigue siendo muy bueno.

[Laura · Rating 2 out of 5]

Exploring a specific facet of society by exploring the language surrounding it is a fascinating approach, but like other anthropological research, it also has its drawbacks. One quibble I have is that the majority of the author's sources are 20-30 years old and although these remain valuable resources, and although in the updated introduction the author claims to not have found many recent valid sources, I find that somewhat hard to believe. This is the era of the internet where new terms are coined pretty much every month but there are few examples of online slang included. Another quibble is that the author occasional ventures into over-generalizing, which makes the research sound amateurish. Nevertheless, an interesting read and a unique way to examine the female gender in a Japanese context.

[Boku · Rating 4 out of 5]

A decent look at linguistic, cultural and traditional ties in words used to describe women and their lives. Unfortunately, much of it is outdated now, but for someone looking for insight into the modern evolution of female language in Japan it does its job.

[Mesha · Rating 4 out of 5]

Very interesting! Perhaps a bit dated. However, it makes you question the use of your own written and spoken language, and what it might say about gender equality in your nation.

[Katherine · Rating 4 out of 5]

An extremely interesting look at culturally-ingrained attitudes towards women through the lens of Japanese linguistics. It's essentially a time capsule of language with a brief "update" introduction. I was a little disappointed in the lack of rigor in the editing process though; I ran into numerous grammatical errors and missing or incorrect punctuation. It was so extensive that for me, it detracted from the actual content of the book. I would still recommend it as a fascinating, unique, and in-depth look into a particular side of Japanese language.

[Storm · Rating 3 out of 5]

Why were there so many typos in this book? It was interesting, although a little dry