was a Japanese essayist, activist, and socialist feminist who contributed to the development of feminism in modern Japan.
Born into a highly-educated family of the former samurai class, Yamakawa graduated from the private women's college Joshi Eigaku Juku (renamed Tsuda College in 1948) in 1912.Faison, 2018, p, 12 In 1916, she married the communist activist and theoretician Yamakawa Hitoshi, who, in 1922, founded the short-lived pre-war Japanese Communist Party and was a leader of the Labor-Farmer faction.Faison, 2018, p. 18
In pre-war times, Yamakawa contributed to the development of feminism as a founding member of the Red Wave Society (Sekirankai), Japan's first socialist women's organization, and she was one of the most visible socialist women.Faison, 2018, p. 17 She is famous for "her position in debates on prostitution and motherhood, in which she consistently challenged liberal feminists (who she termed 'bourgeois feminists') on the possibility of women achieving full rights within a capitalist system". While Yamakawa is perhaps better known for these debates, "her participation in male-dominant socialist organizations and her interventionist writings on behalf of women within those organizations, directed toward her male socialist peers, were equally substantial".
After the end of World War II, Yamakawa became the first head of the Women's and Minors' Bureau of the Ministry of Labor from 1947 to 1951. In addition, she engaged in activism for women's and workers' rights.
Early life Yamakawa was born Morita Kikue on November 3, 1890, in Kōjimachi, Tokyo.Yamakawa, 2014, p. 420 Her father, Morita Ryūnosuke, came from a family of samurai of the lowest rank in the Matsue Domain (present Matsue City, Shimane Prefecture) and worked his way through language school in Yokohama City in Kanagawa Prefecture. Having mastered French, he became an interpreter in the army, and later he managed a meat business. Her mother, Morita Chise, was the daughter of Aoyama Enju, who was a Confucian scholar in the Mito Domain. Chise had a passion for learning and graduated from Tokyo Women's Higher Normal School (present Ochanomizu University) as a first-generation student of the school.Suzuki, 2014, p. 31 Yamakawa Kikue's siblings were accomplished in languages: her older sister Matsue was a pioneer of female Esperantists, and her older brother Toshio was a scholar of German literature in Japan. She also had a younger sister named Shizue.
In 1908, Yamakawa attended the private women's college Joshi Eigaku Juku (present Tsuda University) in Tokyo. According to one of her teachers, she almost failed college because when she took the entrance exam, she wrote a resolution that she would work for the liberation of women.Yamakawa, 2014, p. 168 In her first year of study, Kikue visited a spinning mill factory with her Christian acquaintances and was shocked to see female workers working in terrible working conditions.Suzuki, 2012, pp32-33 When she heard Christian lecturers praise the work there, she was outraged at the notion that people should appreciate their work in spite of the terrible conditions in which the work was done.Yamakawa, 2014, p. 180 This experience made her realize that religion could not solve the manifold problems faced by women factory workers.Suzuki, 2012, p. 33 This experience fueled her future course of action and awakened her to socialism and social science. After her graduation in 1912, Yamakawa worked in a publishing company part-time, engaging in making an English dictionary and translation.
As a feminist thinker and critic
Controversy over the abolition of prostitution (1915–1916) From 1915 through 1916, Yamakawa made her debut as Aoyama Kikue in the world of criticism within the larger debate on the abolition of prostitution with the Japanese feminist Itō Noe in Seitō, the first female literary magazine in Japan.Suzuki, 2012, p. 35 Itō Noe criticized the Christian women's organization's movement to abolish prostitution licensed by the government because the organization's movement was "hypocritical" in that the organization tried to abolish public prostitution from the viewpoints of valuing "virginity" and "chastity". She blamed the way the Christian movement looked down the sex industry and tried to solve the issue just by taking the jobs away from sex workers. Itō also said, "the sex industry is acknowledged by the public because, as everyone says, the industry has been strengthened by men's natural demands and a long history of the industry." Unlike Itō who disagreed with the movements, Kikue, to some extent, agreed with the Christian movement's aim of abolishing public prostitution.Suzuki, 2012, p. 38 However, on the one hand, Kikue agreed with Itō's argument about the movement of Christian women's organizations in that the movement divided women into two categories: "clean" and "unclean" women. On the other hand, Kikue argued against Itō that the long history of prostitution could not justify the existence of the industry, and that licensed prostitution was not a system created by men's natural demands but one that arose because the social system internalized an unnatural power balance between men and women.Yamakawa, 2011, pp. 7-8 Moreover, Kikue said that she would disagree with a system in which women suffer even if the system seemed necessary for men's "instinctive" desires.Yamakawa, 2011, p. 8 Kikue also mentioned private prostitution and contended that the system of prostitution was based on the disparity between rich and poor produced by the private ownership system and the domination of women by men.Suzuki, 2012, p. 37 Furthermore, she pointed out the double standard of female sexuality in a male-dominant and patriarchal society. In sum, Kikue did not think the Christian movement, which encouraged women to follow sexual norms mainly created by men's selfish desires, would lead to the abolishment of licensed prostitution.Yamakawa, 2014, p. 425 Rather, she thought it would be realized by abolishing capitalism and men's dominance over women.
Controversy over maternity protection (1918–1919) From 1918 to 1919, the two magazines Fujin Kōron (Women's forum) and Taiyō (The Sun) hosted a controversial debate over maternity protection. In addition to Kikue, who changed her family name to Yamakawa after her marriage, famous Japanese feminists such as Yosano Akiko, Hiratsuka Raichō, and Yamada Waka took part in the debate. Broadly, the debates had two standpoints. On one side, Yosano argued that the liberation of women required the economic independence of women.Yamakawa, 2014, p. 426 On the other side, Hiratsuka argued that it was impossible or difficult to do both work and parenting. Hiratsuka also viewed women's childbirth and parenting as a national and social project, and thus argued that women deserved the protection of motherhood by the government. They had different opinions about whether women could do both work and family life, and their arguments did not overlap at all. In order to organize these arguments, Yamakawa Kikue named Yosano the "Japanese Mary Wollstonecraft" and Hiratsuka the "Japanese Ellen Key". Yamakawa wrote, "Yosano emphasizes women's individualism. She started by demanding freedom of education, an expansion of the selection of work, and financial independence and eventually demanded suffrage". Yamakawa partly agreed with Yosano but criticized her opinion for thinking only about bourgeois women.Yamakawa, 2014, pp. 426-427 Moreover, Yamakawa disagreed with Yosano that the protection of motherhood by the nation was a shame because it was the same as the government's care of the elderly and the disabled. In this respect, Yamakawa said that Yosano's view was biased on a class society because Yosano only criticized old and disabled people depending on the public assistance while she did not mention soldiers and public servants who also depended on assistance in the same way.Yamakawa, 212, p. 429 Yamakawa argued that Hiratsuka's position was more advanced than that of Yosano in that it took a more critical attitude towards capitalism. However, Yamakawa criticized Hiratsuka for too much emphasis on motherhood. Yamakawa said that Hiratsuka viewed women's ultimate goal as childbirth and parenting, and that it led women to obey male-centered society's idea that women should sacrifice their work in compensation for completing the ultimate goal.Yamakawa, 2014, p. 427 Yamakawa summarized these arguments and argued that financial independence and protection of motherhood were compatible and natural demands of women. As a socialist feminist, Yamakawa argued that female workers should play an active role in winning both economic equality and the protection of motherhood, and that the liberation of women required the reform of capitalist society which exploited workers.Suzuki, 2012, p. 40 Moreover, Yamakawa Kikue made an objection to present society which left household labor as unpaid work. Furthermore, Yamakawa was distinct from Yosano and Hiratsuka in that she saw welfare for the elderly as a right.
Multiple viewpoints against discrimination Yamakawa, as a socialist feminist, had multiple viewpoints against discrimination (sexism, racism, and classism) and took a position against colonialism and imperialism.Yamakawa, 2014, p. 438 In 1925, the Universal Manhood Suffrage Law (普通選挙法, Futsū Senkyo Hō) abolished the restriction of voting rights based on tax payment and granted the right to all men over age 25."Japan Grants Vote Right to 4,000,000 More". Chicago Daily Tribune. March 30, 1925. p. 3. However, women were not allowed to participate in politics. Later, the movement headed by members of the New Women's Association (新婦人協会, Shin Fujin Kyokai), persuaded the government to change Article 5 of the Public Police Law, which had banned women from joining political assemblies.Suzuki, 2012, p. 41 As a result, women were given the right to participate in political assemblies, but they were still not allowed to vote.
In response to the passage of the Universal Manhood Suffrage Law, a political study group was organized for re-establishing the Japanese Communist Party. A few women, including Yamakawa Kikue, participated in the study group. However, the policy directions the men-dominant study group did not sufficiently address women's issues. Therefore, Yamakawa submitted the following eight-point demand for equal gender rights:Yamakawa 1990
Abolish the patriarchal household system. Abolish all laws that view a woman as an incompetent person, regardless of marital status. Give equal rights between men and women regarding marriage and divorce. Equal rights of educational institutions and work for women and the residents in colonies to Japanese men. Guarantee an equal minimum wage, regardless of sex or ethnicity. Equal pay for equal work among men, women, and the residents in colonies. Provide female working mothers with a room and one thirty-minute recess every three hours for feeding. Ban the firing of women on account of marriage, pregnancy, or childbirth status. Abolish licensed prostitution.