"Traditional" Japanese Women

I. Prehistoric Japan as matriarchy?

A. Jomon era, ca. 10,000-350 B.C.E.

fertility figures

Jomon revisionism

Izanagi and Izanami

B. Yayoi era, ca. 350 B.C. E.-300 C.E.; Tomb era, ca. 300-552 C.E.

haniwa miko

mirrors and magatama

tombs for female rulers

C. Queen Himiko, ca. 250 C.E.

shamanism and Shinto

kami and animism

descended from the kami

prophecy and exoricism

Himiko and Amaterasu

Kojiki and Nihongi

Susano-o and the cave

Hi no tori

matriarchy and the myth of homogeneity

D. The decline of shamanic women

Asuka [552-710] and Nara [710-784] eras

Buddhism and Confucianism

decline of shamanism or just women?

Empress Jingu, 200-269

Himiko?

Korean ancestry or invader of Korea?

Kaya and Mimana

Empress Suiko, 592-628

Suiko and Shotoku Taishi

Suiko and the Chinese

Empress Jito, 687-697

husband and wife: secular and religious?

remaining shamanic aspects

Empress Shotoku, 764-770; Koken, 749-758

the Dokyo scandal

Buddhism and Confucianism in the ascendent

II. The women of Heian-kyo, 794-1185

A. Images of Heian

Murasaki Shikibu: Tale of Genji

Sei Shonagon: The Pillow Book

the tyranny of manners

love, sex and betrayal

B. Some reconsiderations of Heian-kyo

political men and economic women

uxorilocal marriage practices

duolocal, neolocal, virilocal

Fujiwara mothers and the Emperor

gender roles and civilization

drawing a clear line

the image of the effeminate male in Japan

III. Women in the samurai era

A. The Kamakura Bakufu, 1185-1333

Lady Tomoe and the fall of the Heike

Hojo Masako [1157-1225] and Minamoto Yoritomo

the nun Shogun

the curtained screen

women as landowners and litigants

uxorilocal marriage and inheritance

women as jito

women as shugo

commoner women and the spread of Buddhism

miko and other village wise women

nuns and hermits

reincarnation and the genderless soul

B. The Ashikaga Bakufu and the Warlord era, 1333-1477-1603

primogeniture and clan chiefs

women as marriage pawns

responsibility without power

dignity and honor

the importance of women's natal families

female seppuku

peasant women under the warlords

cadastral surveys, taxation and the head of household

village headmen and councils

baby headmen

ashigaru and local power

female inheritance and adopted sons-in-law

sericulture and female infanticide/selling

guilds [za] and female artisans

C. The Tokugawa Bakufu, 1603-1867

the frozen caste system

bushido: way of the warrior? bureaucrat

gender roles and civilization again

Kaibara Ekken: Greater Learning for Women [Onna daigaku]

Daimyo and Shogunal harems

low ranking samurai wives as keepers of the purse

Chonin [townsfolk] women

the alternate attendance system [sankin kotai] and the rise of castle towns

peasant customs go urban

inheritance, business and expansion

5 family system and urban villages

divorce and child custody issues

samurai customs and social climbing

doing the paperwork: the male myth and changes in status

the wild and wonderful world of entertainment

Okuni and the invention of Kabuki

Geisha means "artist" not hooker

hookers, sumo wrestlers and other entrepreneurs