A major contribution to the studies of literacy, education, and the book in Japan, and of women and gender, The Female as Subject: Reading and Writing in Early Modern Japan examines Japanese women as readers, writers, and activists in the seventeenth through early twentieth centuries. Consisting of essays by eleven prominent scholars, the monograph shows “through a variety of approaches that the standard narratives of literate life in Japan in the Edo and Meiji periods are incomplete” (p. 3). It attests to the participation of women in cultural, intellectual, and political landscapes associated mainly with men until recently. While addressing multiple yet overlapping themes coherently, the book conveys a dynamic sense of openness (especially the first, stage-setting chapter) by suggesting that many unanswered questions remain.
As the editors' introduction indicates, this book falls within the framework of almost three decades of research in the west on Edo and Meiji period women. Tiziana Plebani's Il “genere” dei libri (The gender of the book, 2001) served as a more direct inspiration despite its concern with Europe as it suggested a comprehensive approach to relevant issues regarding female reading and writing practices. (Unfortunately, readers without knowledge of Italian will not be able to consider that book firsthand.)
In a detailed opening chapter, P.F. Kornicki examines the evidence for women's literacy and its uses in the Edo period. While pointing to vast chronological, regional, and social variations, he demonstrates that Edo-period girls and women had many favorable educational opportunities and that, over time, “it became more common for girls to be educated outside the home, for women to be their teachers, for books to be written and published with a female readership in mind, and for women to engage in literary and intellectual pursuits” (p. 37).
Chapters 2 and 3 both consider the role of classical literature in early modern Japan. G.G. Rowley examines Genji in the lives of aristocratic women, focusing on Genji-related texts of three periods. The twelfth-century Genji no mokuroku demonstrates that Genji was valued as essential knowledge for aristocratic women from early on. Commentaries by Keifukuin Kaoku Gyokuei (1526-after 1602) reaffirm its value, while Matsukage nikki by Ōgimachi Machiko (1679–1724) shows how such knowledge continued to be rewarded even while the suitability of Genji for non-aristocratic women was questioned. Readers will welcome learning about these two relatively unknown women writers. Joshua S. Mostow focuses on Edo-period versions of Hyakunin isshu and Ise monogatari in his meticulous study of illustrated classical texts for women. With fourteen illustrations, this chapter examines how these works and Genji to a lesser degree were packaged and made available to and for women. Hyakunin isshu was a fundamental part of female education in the seventeenth through nineteenth centuries whereas Ise disappeared from the female curriculum by the early nineteenth. As for Genji, only the poems associated with its chapter titles appear in texts intended for (non-aristocratic) women or it was known through a famous parody.
With ten illustrations incorporated into the discussion, Itasaka Noriko describes three periods of ukiyo-e prints depicting woman readers: an early period showing both high-ranking women and courtesans; a middle when courtesans dominate, high-ranking women disappear and merchant women are introduced; a later when merchant-class girls loom larger. The book, environment, social class, and posture of the figures establish symbolic meaning. Books in the hands of women ultimately acquire “an aura of badness,” which Itasaka connects to anxiety about women asserting autonomy. That point warrants further exploration. Given that men created ukiyo-e, wouldn't this sense of “badness” be appealing? Can the figure of the reading woman be linked to both the male gaze/desire and a fear of more autonomous women?
Promoting the prosopographical method rather strongly, Anna Beerens highlights five women in a network of 173 interrelated late Edo-period intellectuals along with literate wives, daughters, and mothers of the men, demonstrating that the method helps us locate various types of women in the shadows of the life histories of men. A second case study, of the biographies of 251 waka poets in one anthology (who, failing to form a coherent group, cannot be turned into a prosopography) reveals problems of interpreting biographical sketches. Here, too, to “get to know women in a male-dominated society we must, paradoxically, study the men” (p. 120).
The next five chapters shift the focus away from groups to individuals. It becomes harder to see which experiences and attitudes have broader relevance to society at large, but these glimpses of the Edo and Meiji past are more personal. Bettina Gramlich-Oka examines Confucian cultivation for women through a study of Yakakusō (A Sentinel's Notes), advice written by scholar Inooka Gisai (1717–89) for his daughter Rai Shizu (1760–1843), mother of historian Rai San'yō (1780–1832), when she has to leave her hometown. She must cultivate herself intellectually, reading Confucian texts and following the way of woman. He expresses personal messages through waka. Additional research shows that the father set his daughter on a Confucian inspired path, but Shizu ultimately “carved out her own literary space” (p.134).
Yabuta Yutaka discusses a collection of family documents, including diaries and letters, related to the life of commoner Nishitani Saku (1842–1862). That the Nishitani were from a country town, dealt in trade, and owned much land suggests connections between literacy and social status. Saku's literary skills were used largely for practical purposes as circumstances dictated. Her writing, while more developed than her mother's, does not reveal the extensive education required to write in a literary style. Yabuta suggests that extensive knowledge of one life, Saku's, enhances our understanding of the literacies and educations of commoner women in the Edo-period, but is not specific about which aspects of Saku's case likely held true for others.
Atsuko Sakaki emphasizes the unique position in literary history of Arakida Rei (1732–1806) as a woman writer who turned outward to other times and places rather than inward as in autobiography/memoir. Ironically, Sakaki approaches Ayashi no yogatari (Strange Talks of the Town), a story collection appropriating aspects of Chinese zhiguai and chuanqi tales of the strange and marvelous (or “supernatural”), as one usually does autobiography: to understand the writer's subjectivity or identity. Arakida stages herself as woman of letters and self-critic, speaks as if gender neutral, downplays her knowledge, and has characters rather than the narrator expose the foolishness of intellectuals through laughter, thereby avoiding pretentiousness. The discussion culminates in an explication of “Head-Flying Savage.”
Moving into the Meiji period, Sugano Noriko analyzes the dynamic public speeches of early feminist, critic, and novelist Kishida Toshida (1863–1901) in 1882–83 and responses of audiences, including the media and law enforcement, to them. She details how Kishida approached the widely diffused conduct book Onna Daigaku (Greater Learning for Women), offering a revised interpretation of the “three obediences”: that women should adhere to the moral ideal of the Confucian way “in keeping with their station in life” (p. 183). Kishida ultimately came to focus on women's education in part because saw the dangers of miseducation.
Mara Patessio details how women found a public tool in print media. Through magazines such as Jogaku zasshi and Fujo shinbun, certain women formed a community of writers and readers and became active in social and political dialogues. A series of articles mainly by men appeared in 1889 and 1890 emphasizing the dangers of women reading novels. Articles in Yomiuri shinbun attacked the behavior and morality of girl students. Underlying this anxiety, Patessio argues, was fear of women organizing through women's groups and of reading and writing for magazines that sometimes failed to support government policies. It took about another decade for women to begin using print media to defend themselves.
Lastly, Anne Walthall analyzes “the transformations wrought in female literacy between the Edo and Meiji periods” (p. 217). Things not only change but also get lost in the Edo-Meiji divide. The Edo literacies of women and men shared many things in common, including an emphasis on didactic books. The content of what men and women read and wrote tended to differ but chance, what texts were available, also determined the kind of literacy acquired. Through nationwide compulsory education in the Meiji period, women gained wider knowledge and opportunities to pursue occupations. However, the Meiji state introduced sharper gender distinctions in education and greater control of what women read.
The Female as Subject effectively addresses its targeted audience of students and teachers of the Edo and Meiji periods as well as “scholars of the history of literacy and the book in East Asia” (book jacket). The monograph would also prove valuable in comparative studies that look beyond East Asia although outside readers may find it more difficult as it does assume readers have some knowledge of early modern Japan. Finally, it expands our knowledge of the reception of classical literature by subsequent generations, a topic relevant to studies of both modern and premodern Japan.
