Interactive Oral: 3 Image 1 Question
Introduction
- Every culture around the world had a time of discovery, where their society was trying to find out what the roles of men and women should be. So every culture has had past ups and downs when it comes to gender roles. Today were going to talk about Japan’s past, specifically women’s roles, before it evolved into what it was in the Meiji era.
Research/Facts
- Briefly, the Meiji era was was a 45-year reign of Emperor Meiji, and during this time, the roles of japanese women modernized.
- However, prior the Meiji era, there were two periods of time, one being the Heian Period, lasting from 794 - 1192, and the tokugawa period, or as some call it, it edo period, which lasted from 1603 - 1868.
- During the Heian Period, the Japanese were developing their culture
- During the Edo Period, warlords and the samurai ruled Japan. Thus, Japan followed the feudal system.
- In this pre-meiji era, women were considered useless in society besides mothers and wives, and were inferior to their husbands. Japanese women relied totally on their husband’s family or father (extremely patriarchal society).
- Upper class women of the Heian Period were higher in society than women from previous years.
- Women could now inherit and keep property. In addition, a married woman could continue living in her birth home, thus preventing her husband from holding too much power and influence over her daily life.
- Laws were made to protect women from physical violence.
- In terms of education, court women could now learn: poetry, letter writing, calligraphy, music, preparation of incense and perfumes, and fashion.
Despite the fact that women were not allowed to choose who they marry, the marriage system “polygamy,” during the Heian Period was a system where men could marry multiple women.
- During the Edo Period, women of high-ranking-samurai status continued the traditions of the Heian court (Christensen 54).
- They maintained a scholar-amateur position
- Aristocratic and samurai elite women received cultural training similar to that of the court women such as calligraphy, music (koto, flute), painting, and poetry. These skills were important for any cultivated aristocratic woman, or women of the merchant class looking for a good marriage.
- A lot of the women were courtesans, who were entertainers for rich or upper-class customers. Many of these women were from the lower samurai classes or from the middle class. This allowed women to be able to live independently and not have to rely on someone else like a husband. Another name for these women is geisha. Gei meaning the arts and sha meaning person.
Geishas were really good entertainers who had years of training in music, dance, tea, etc. The men who hired courtesans also thought that cultural traditions were important, so courtesans had to be be educated in those areas.
- Before the Meiji Era, people thought that beautiful women had: whitened skin (makeup), shaved and re-painted eyebrows, small rose-bud mouth, blackened teeth in order to emphasise white skin, and very long black hair (Akiyama 98).
As people we know that traditions don’t die so easily, so even though the tradition of playing koto and have having traditional skills, some practices and costoms clearly carried over into the Meiji Era and even after as Sensei wife in the novel, when she was younger, practiced koto and skills like flower arranging.
Questions Brainstorm: masculinity, do you think that there is still a status around women today that they are below men? Or it is the man that should make the money in the family? In what ways today do women rely on men today? Is it still a pre-conceived notion that women are just deemed as wives and mothers? Is it an automatic assumption for people these days to think that mothers should always be there for their children and it is more a disgrace is they leave, whereas if the father leaves (it is more common for fathers to leave than mothers) Being that women are paid less than men, is it a society opinion that women aren’t qualified to work as hard as men? Is their value still less in the workforce?
FInal Question:
What are some current expectations and preconceived notions about women’s roles in society today?
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