The Bluestockings Of Japan: New Women Essays And Fiction From Seito, 1911-16

Michigan Monograph Series in Japanese Studies

by Jan Bardsley

The Bluestockings of Japan introduces English-language readers to a formative chapter in the history of Japanese feminism by presenting for the first time in English translation a collection of writings from Seitō (Bluestockings), the famed New Women’s journal of the 1910s. Launched in 1911 as a venue for women’s literary expression and replete with poetry, essays, plays, and stories, Seitō soon earned the disapproval of civic leaders, educators, and even prominent women’s rights advocates. Journalists joined these leaders in ridiculing the Bluestockings as self-indulgent, literature-loving, sake-drinking, cigarette-smoking tarts who toyed with men. Yet many young women and men delighted in the Bluestockings’ rebellious stance and paid serious attention to their exploration of the Woman Question, their calls for women’s independence, and their debates on women’s work, sexuality, and identity. Hundreds read the journal and many women felt inspired to contribute their own essays and stories.
The seventeen Seitō pieces collected here represent some of the journal’s most controversial writing; four of these publications provoked either a strong reprimand or an outright ban on an entire issue by government censors. All consider topics important in debates on feminism to this day such as sexual harassment, abortion, romantic love and sexuality, motherhood, and the meaning of gender equality.

The Bluestockings of Japan shows that as much as these writers longed to be New Women immersed in the world of art and philosophy, they were also real women who had to negotiate careers, motherhood, romantic relationships, and an unexpected notoriety. Their stories, essays, and poetry document that journey, highlighting the diversity among these New Women and displaying the vitality of feminist thinking in Japan in the 1910s.

Genres: Feminism, Japan, Nonfiction, Japanese Literature

320 pages, Paperback

Published January 5, 2007

About the author

Jan Bardsley is Professor Emerita of Asian and Middle Eastern Studies at The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. She is the author of Maiko Masquerade: Crafting Geisha Girlhood in Japan (University of California Press, 2021);
Women and Democracy in Cold War Japan (SOAS Studies in Modern and Contemporary Japan, Bloomsbury, 2014); and The Bluestockings of Japan: New Women Fiction and Essays from Seitō, 1911-1916 (University of Michigan, Center for Japanese Studies, 2007) for which she was awarded the 2011 Hiratsuka Raichō Award by Japan Women’s University. She is co-editor with Laura Miller of Manners and Mischief: Gender, Power, and Etiquette in Japan (University of California Press, 2011) and Bad Girls of Japan (Palgrave, 2005) and co-producer/director with Joanne Hershfield of the documentary, Women in Japan: Memories of the Past, Dreams for the Future (2002). T

Reviews

[Joan · Rating 5 out of 5]

Fascinating, surprising and engaging

“All the women who were sleeping
Are awake now and moving”
By Yosano Akiko

“We are women of the human species. We are not a species called women. This is a truth that cannot be denied and the should guarantee us freedom of thought as human beings… The ancients had a saying for this: “No matter how lowly the person may be, a human’s spirit should not be broken.”
Iwano Kiyoko

Are social systems created by people or shaped by the inevitable forces of nature - the forces that create human beings? Is self-awareness sufficient or is action for system reform required for true freedom?
Aoyama Kikue and Ito Noe

“One is free to choose whomever to love, but if this takes no thought and non self-examination, then love becomes a vulgar thing indeed…. To whatever extent love is blind, it is unworthy of respect
Iwano Kiyoko

“But I was armed with the knowledge that my Self was strong. So even if I were to come to ruin in the end, I would live the life I must as a human being… I would fight with my own strength…After coming to this conclusion, I find myself in a peaceful, even cheerful mood, for all I have to do now is fight.”
Iwano Kiyoko


The Bluestockings of Japan were a group of independent minded women in the early 20th century. They published a magazine, Seito (1911- 1916). Forerunners of “That Girl” Ann Marie and Mary Richards of the “Mary Tyler Moore Show”. These women sought personal, financial and intellectual freedom. BUT, the form that freedom took varied widely and “Seito” was filled with their lively debates, essays and fiction.

The anthology is a scholarly work with references. I read it in full because I like that but you the reader are free to read as you choose - skip the background and dive right into the lively essays. Jan Bardsley has selected writing and excerpts from 10 women writers. For each, the author provides biographical and contextual background. The ideas, the radical vision of these women in early 20th century Japan may surprise you - it surprised me.

[Jennifer · Rating 4 out of 5]

Great collection of stories/essays. Biographies of each featured woman also very interesting and informative on the ethos of Seito and the ideas of each woman.

[Sapote3 · Rating 4 out of 5]

I really loved how this book gave us such clear portraits of the individuals involved in Seito (a feminist journal in 1911 Japan) their lives, and their work. I found them sympathetic, interesting characters - in fact, thinking of it, a novelization of this very source-y nonfiction book would probably be just about my favorite thing ever. Though it probably exists, in the Japanese.

One thing that I found interesting was how I find English texts from 1911 kind of slow going, but because Japanese texts from the era are here translated into somewhat simple modern English, they seem much more immediate than contemporary English or American works. I wonder how much of the quirks of the culture and changing vernacular I'm losing entirely in reading everything in translation.