THE CREATION OF PUBLIC SPACES BY WOMEN IN THE EARLY MEIJI PERIOD AND THE TŌKYŌ FUJIN KYŌFŪKAI

Abstract

Other than a few remarkable exceptions, and because of their lack of social, educational, and political rights, women of the early Meiji period (1868–1890) have often been regarded as powerless actors in the formation and expansion of the bourgeoning Japanese public sphere. Following the research that feminist scholars have developed over the past twenty years on the redefinition of Jürgen Habermas' concepts of “public” and “private” in relation to Western women's lives, I would like to demonstrate how, even when lacking the possibility of changing their lives, some groups of Japanese women during the 1880s were nevertheless able to gather together, bring forth demands in public settings, and make public topics of discussion that had hither to been considered unworthy of public debate and pertaining only to the private lives of Japanese male citizens. In order to do so, I will take into consideration some of the activities organized by the women belonging to the Tōkyō Fujin Kyōfūkai, the Japanese branch of the Woman's Christian Temperance Union (W.C.T.U.).