Women in Japan, from the 2nd century to the present day.
Nuinui| N° d'inventaire | 25825 |
| Format | 190 x 270 mm |
| Détails | 256 p., paperback. |
| Publication | Chermignon, 2021 |
| Etat | nine |
| ISBN | 9782889357895 |
The legends of ancient Japan's matriarchal society are filled with queens and empresses, priestesses, and goddesses. Shintoism has many important female deities, beginning with the sun goddess Amaterasu, from whom the imperial family is said to descend.
But from around the 5th century, with the introduction of Buddhism and Confucian thought, women were gradually confined to a subordinate role, although many aristocrats managed to preserve their prestige. In the following centuries, given the importance given to literary works dealing with amorous subjects, women achieved excellence in the field of writing thanks to their sensitivity, making a fundamental contribution to the development of Japanese literature. There are famous authors of novels, diaries, stories, and poems: at the beginning of the 11th century dates the Genji monogatari, according to some the first modern novel, written by a lady of the court, Murasaki Shikibu. In the feudal era, there was no shortage of samurai women who distinguished themselves for their courage and skill in combat; in the following era, that of the Tokugawa (1603-1867), we find other leading figures in various fields. With the Meiji period (1868-1912), the tendency to reduce the female figure to a position of inferiority did not prevent some women from rebelling against the imposed rules, gaining space in areas that had previously been closed to them, such as certain forms of theater. More recently, artists like Yayoi Kusama or Yoko Ono, avant-garde stylists like Rei Kawakubo, writers like Natsuo Kirino and Banana Yoshimoto, not to mention the many mangaka to whom we owe some of the most successful comics of recent decades, have best interpreted the spirit of the times; and, finally, the last two empresses, of bourgeois origin, sanctioned in the last century a new era for Japan and the reigning house.
The legends of ancient Japan's matriarchal society are filled with queens and empresses, priestesses, and goddesses. Shintoism has many important female deities, beginning with the sun goddess Amaterasu, from whom the imperial family is said to descend.
But from around the 5th century, with the introduction of Buddhism and Confucian thought, women were gradually confined to a subordinate role, although many aristocrats managed to preserve their prestige. In the following centuries, given the importance given to literary works dealing with amorous subjects, women achieved excellence in the field of writing thanks to their sensitivity, making a fundamental contribution to the development of Japanese literature. There are famous authors of novels, diaries, stories, and poems: at the beginning of the 11th century dates the Genji monogatari, according to some the first modern novel, written by a lady of the court, Murasaki Shikibu. In the feudal era, there was no shortage of samurai women who distinguished themselves for their courage and skill in combat; in the following era, that of the Tokugawa (1603-1867), we find other leading figures in various fields. With the Meiji period (1868-1912), the tendency to reduce the female figure to a position of inferiority did not prevent some women from rebelling against the imposed rules, gaining space in areas that had previously been closed to them, such as certain forms of theater. More recently, artists like Yayoi Kusama or Yoko Ono, avant-garde stylists like Rei Kawakubo, writers like Natsuo Kirino and Banana Yoshimoto, not to mention the many mangaka to whom we owe some of the most successful comics of recent decades, have best interpreted the spirit of the times; and, finally, the last two empresses, of bourgeois origin, sanctioned in the last century a new era for Japan and the reigning house.