For Japanese Mondernism, analysis of Ito Noe's essay.
Atarashiki Onna no Michi Analysis
In Ito Noe’s Atarashiki Onna no Michi, Ito stresses the importance of women to find independence from the idea that women could only truly ‘fit’ into Japanese society if they maintained the ‘Good wife, Wise Mother’ ideology. Even though the path to achieve freedom from social constraints forced onto women would be painful and wrought with hardships, such a path is the only option for such free thinking women who wanted more than society was willing to give. She stresses the ideal of ‘pioneer’ and ‘straggler’: the pioneer being the woman who embarked on a new path towards social change, crossing any barrier that would come before them, ever alone; the straggler the woman who seems to want liberation as weal, but too afraid to face the hardships the pioneers face, so choose to follow the after the pioneers after the path has been cleared and made safe. In usage the straggler is more than likely the woman who would, in secret, read Ito’s works and nod her head in agreement, but would no publicly make any actions and continue to adhere to what was considered ‘acceptable’ actions for a woman. On the reverse are women, like Ito, the pioneers, who daringly voiced their opinions in writings and the like. Although the straggler would see women’s right in the end, it is the only the work of the pioneers’ removing the obstacles that lay in her path. It also seems to me that Ito wanted to bring about changes in a short amount of time – that her essay Atarashiki Onna no Michi was not long-term, for future generations but for the present. If all women were to take up the position of pioneer instead of straggler, that social change would be almost immediate. She was not giving Japan an option of accepting a new notion of women outside of mother and housewife, but demanding that women be acknowledged as more than this. However in opposition, Ito list characteristics such as ‘strong-willed’ and ‘strength’ and ‘courage’ which young girls and women growing up in the age would not have been ‘taught’ in a sense, having to take classical Japanese arts in Women’s Colleges or in traditional Japanese households in their younger years. In a way Ito ideals are radical in a way, and I only wonder is Japan, at that time, has more ‘pioneers’ than ‘stragglers’ to bring about the change Atarashiki… called for.
© Caroline Alicia Harris
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