4 ratings (4.75 avg)
3 reviews

Keith McLachlan

Add friend

Keith’s Bookshelves

to-read‎ (0)

currently-reading‎ (3)

read‎ (3)

Stats | More…

Keith is Currently Reading

Keith McLachlan rated a book it was amazing

In the Beginning, Woman Was the Sun: The Autobiography of a Japanese Feminist (Weatherhead Books on Asia)

by Raicho Hiratsuka

bookshelves: currently-reading

Rate this book

Clear rating

1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars

Keith McLachlan said:

This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it, click here.

" I am reading this book not for the feminism but to study Raicho's Zen practice. She has a strong Rinzai Zen practice and it is unlikely that she would have accomplished as much or have done it as calmly without practicing Zazen. So while she was natu I am reading this book not for the feminism but to study Raicho's Zen practice. She has a strong Rinzai Zen practice and it is unlikely that she would have accomplished as much or have done it as calmly without practicing Zazen. So while she was naturally observant, Zazen shaped her character into a strong woman.

Hiratsuka observes a wide range of Japanese life from the mid Meiji era, turn of the century to the mid 60s Showa era.. She notes her father becoming solidified as a government bureaucrat. She tells us of the differences between her grandmothers. One is down to earth carefree and the other is meticulously bound to the rigid Japanese culture.

I am only a third the way through the book, so I am not sure if she considered her work to be feminism. She wrote about what she considered important issues of their times. Hiratsuka's life changed drastically or dramatically when she went on an overnight trip with a male friend. And even though nothing sexual happened her reputation was damaged beyond repair. Her being so observant of Japanese culture, it is hard to believe that she was so naive to not know the consequences of the trip. Perhaps she was burning her bridges to force herself down a certain path. Raicho's meditation practice gave her the strength to not care about what other people thought.

One of Hiratsuka's studies is literature. I found it interesting that some of her fellow students identified with characters of the books and one male friend came close to killing her using a method found in a novel.

Full disclosure: I am an older male. So what interests me about the book may be entirely different from what other readers find.

Finally, I doubt Raich Hiratsuka thought she was writing an autobiography as her writing is so matter of fact. So Zen. I wonder if she had read Thoreau sentence from Walden: "I went to the woods so that I might live deliberately, and see if I could not learn what it had to teach and not when it came time to die discover I had not lived."

Raicho lived life deliberately and learned what it had to teach and now she is teaching us.

It is a very good book. I highly recommend it. ...more "

progress:

(page 0 of 432)
"I'm finished. I was more interested in Raicho's Zen practice. Unfortunately there wasn't a great deal of Zen. It was more about her feminism.

Still I will come back to it from time to time." — Dec 23, 2024 08:08PM

Sep 20, 2024 07:55AM · see review