Factory Girls: Women in the Thread Mills of Meiji Japan

by E. Patricia Tsurumi

Investigating the enormous contribution made by female textile workers to early industrialization in Meiji Japan, Patricia Tsurumi vividly documents not only their hardships but also their triumphs. While their skills and long hours created profits for factory owners that in turn benefited the state, the labor of these women and girls enabled their tenant farming families to continue paying high rents in the countryside. Tsurumi shows that through their experiences as Japan's first modern factory workers, these "factory girls" developed an identity that played a crucial role in the history of the Japanese working class. Much of this story is based on records the factory girls themselves left behind, including their songs. "It is a delight to receive a meticulous and comprehensive volume on the plight of women who pioneered [assembly plant] employment in Asia a century ago...."--L. L. Cornell, The Journal of Asian Studies "Tsurumi writes of these rural women with compassion and treats them as sentient, valuable individuals.... [Many] readers will find these pages informative and thought provoking."--Sally Ann Hastings, Monumenta Niponica

Genres: History, Japan, Nonfiction, Asia, Womens, Japanese History

232 pages, Paperback

First published August 1, 1990

Reviews

[Chelsea Szendi · Rating 3 out of 5]

Sometimes the history feels like a 'gap-filler' (as Sayaka put it, "I guess somebody had to write it"), but it's a treasure trove for juicy details to enliven lectures. Don't miss the ditty popular among Suwa area factory girls in 1907 celebrating a woman who managed to catch a serial rapist by grabbing him by the testicles:

Iwataru Kikusa is a shining
Model of a factory girl.
Let’s wrench the balls
Of the hateful men!

[Benemint · Rating 3 out of 5]

Solid but straightforward piece. I guess someone had to write about it.

[B. Jean · Rating 4 out of 5]

I've probably read 600~800 pages spread out over 20 articles and 7 books for a ten page paper. This 196 page book is the largest chunk of it.

Very useful, very thorough. It describes the factory girls in the cotton and silk factories of Meiji Japan. It goes into great depth about their lives, their struggles, strikes, wages, working conditions, illnesses, and so on. Definitely a useful resource for my paper.

[Susan Molloy · Rating 5 out of 5]

Women and girls in Japan's Meiji Era were an essential human resource that performed an intensely significant role in Japan's progress from a somewhat feudalist society to a modern industrial nation. The author provides a clear, logical, and emotional per

[Cat Wang · Rating 3 out of 5]

for history (snoozefest but important to understand the time!)