History Maker

The "Traditional" Status of Women

Japanese women are often depicted as quiet, unassuming and self deprecating. This image was carefully cultivated from the Edo period (1600-1867) until very recently. In fact, the Edo period text Onna Daigaku (the greater learning for women) spelled out the various rules women must follow in order to effectively serve their fathers, their husbands and then their sons.

These beliefs were also given expression in the traditional kimono worn by women in the wedding ceremony, which had an elaborate head covering to conceal the"horns of jealousy." Its message was that the bride was expected to subjugate herself to her husbandís needs and wishes and to serve her mother-in-law faithfully in caring for her father-in-law and her own husband. Moreover, the traditional wedding kimono was white, the color of mourning, because her marriage meant she was dead to her family. Her name was expunged from her family register to be entered into her husbandísfamilyís register.

All of this suggests that women were submissive and subservient. Indeed cultural commentators and many historians have supported this notion by omitting women from their accounts of Japanese history or by paying little attention to them when they did mention them. Nevertheless, the names of powerful women resonate from the centuries before the ìtraditionalîimage of women was established.

In fact, the first written records about Japanese political organization show that the country was ruled by a woman, called Himiko. Japanese legends say that the Japanese imperial family was founded by the sun goddess, Amaterasu Omikami, whom some scholars have identified with Himiko. The Empress Jingu is described as a mighty warrior, while the Empress Koken was a powerful political figure who was able to temporarily check the Fujiwara familyís ambition to control the imperial family.

The Nun Shogun

Women of other social classes also played pivotal roles in Japanese history. One of these was Hojo Masako (1157-1225), who is widely known as the ama shogun - the nun shogun, because of the vital role she played in the establishment of the shogunal system.

When she was born, Japan was nominally ruled by the emperor through Fujiwara regents. However the Taira and Minamoto feudal clans were engaged in a struggle to control the real military and civil powers of the state. The Minamoto lost this initial struggle in 1160, so Yoritomo Minamoto, the son of the Minamoto leaders was banished to the household of Tokimasa Hojo, Masako Hojo's father. Despite being Yoritomo's erstwhile captor, he developed a warm relationship with him. This eventually led to Masako's marriage to Yoritomo.

In the interim, the Taira were consolidating their power. In 1180, Kiyomaro Taira was able to place his three year old grandson on the throne as Emperor Antoku., with Kiyomaro as his regent. This gave the Taira almost absolute political control over the country. Yoritomo rebelled at this idea in every sense of the word. With the help of his father-in-law, he launched a major attack against the Taira in the same year. He lost his first battle, but won the second. Over the next five years, Minamoto forces succeeded in destroying the Taira including the child-emperor Antoku.

After a series of other conflicts, Yoritomo gradually consolidated his administrative hold over the country. In 1192, he was granted the title of Shogun and established a military capital in Kamakura. He ruled for another seven years as Shogun. When he died his seventeen year old son, Yoriie, was appointed shogun, but real power was vested in a council formed by Tokimasa Hojo who acted as regent. Masako took vows as a Buddhist nun, but served as a member of this council and had a strong voice in it.

Yoriie became ill when he was twenty four. So the council divided his land rights between his infant son, Ichiman and his younger brother Sanetomo. Yoriie rebelled against this and joined his father in-law in an effort to overthrow the Hojo council. They failed. Yoriie's father-in-law was executed. Yoriie was banished to a place of exile, where he was murdered a year later.

Masako's second son by Yoritomo, Sanetomo, who was then sixteen, was made the Shogun. Masako had a very strong influence on him, but her own father who had remarried wanted to displace Sanetomo in favor his son-in-law. Masako and her brother Yoshitoki uncovered this plot and banished their father from Kamakura. This move gave them complete control over the Shogunate.

After this, the retired emperor Go-Toba established good relations with Sanetomo and was able to exercise influence over him. Then in 1219, Kugyo, a son of Yoriie, murdered Sanetomo, because he blamed Sanetomo for his father's death. This disruption prompted retired emperor Go-Toba to seek more power and he recruited an army to drive the Hojo out and re-establish direct imperial rule. Masako played a critical role in defeating Go-Toba's efforts by insisting that the Shogunate's forces make a massive quick attack on the forces supporting Go-Toba. They followed her advice and utterly defeated Go-Toba's army.

This victory established the authority and power of the Shogunate, but it was still had to deal with other plots. When Yoshitoki died, the council appointed new regents selected by Masako, however the some of Yoshitoki's kin, members of the Iga family, plotted to take over the regency. They sought the help of the Yoshimura Miura one of the most powerful feudal lords. When Masako heard of this, she went alone to Yoshimura's residence to confront him and force him to reaffirm his allegiance to the Hojo regency. In doing so, she eliminated the last threat to the political power of the Hojo. She remained a central force in the Shogunate's operations until she died at age 69, in 1225.

In addition to her political abilities, Masako demonstrated a genuine compassion for other women. For example, when Yoritomo's forces captured Shizuka Gozen, the mistress of Yoritomoís renegade half-brother, Yoshitsune, they tortured her in order to find out where Yoshitsune was hiding. Shizuka refused to cooperate and was sentenced to death. Masako intervened with Yoritomo and Shizuka was pardoned and released to live in Kyoto.

Temples of Refuge

Masakoís city of Kamakura later became even more strongly linked with the idea of compassion for women, when one of her successors established the first kakekomidera - temple of refuge. A number of these convent temples were founded in the thirteenth century to provide shelter for women fleeing from abusive husbands. They later became known as divorce temples, since a women who stayed in the temple for three full years could be granted divorce by the temple authorities even if her husband opposed this . During the Edo period (1600-1867), the number refuge was reduced to two and refuge in these two temples was the only way for a woman to initiate a divorce. By contrast, men were able to divorce by simply by writing mikudari han (a letter of three and a half lines declaring the divorce and the wife's freedom to remarry.