Document Type
Article
Publication Date
11-15-2017
Publication Title
Japanese Studies
Abstract
In 1893, Sumiya Koume (1850–1920) wrote an essay for the prominent women’s journal Jogaku zasshi(Women’s Education Magazine) entitled ‘I Recommend Against Becoming a Geisha or Concubine’. In it, she critiqued both roles and exhorted women who were serving as geisha not to become concubines. She did not mention that she herself had worked as both a geisha and a concubine (tekake or mekake). By the time she wrote her essay, she had also served as a political activist as well as a social reformer and missionary. Sumiya’s life sheds light on the transitional nature of the early Meiji era, specifically the period of flux between the formal abolition of concubinage in 1882 and the advent of the state-sponsored ‘good wife, wise mother’ (ryōsai kenbo) paradigm in 1899.
Volume
37
Issue
3
First Page
311
Last Page
329
DOI
doi.org/10.1080/10371397.2017.1394781
Creative Commons License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.
Rights
Licensed to Smith College and distributed CC-BY under the Smith College Faculty Open Access Policy.
Recommended Citation
Anderson, Marnie S., "Critiquing Concubinage: Sumiya Koume and Changing Gender Roles in Modern Japan" (2017). History: Faculty Publications, Smith College, Northampton, MA.
https://scholarworks.smith.edu/hst_facpubs/5
Comments
Accepted manuscript version.