Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Hawaii at Manoa, 2004. / Includes bibliographical references (leaves 305-313). / Also available by subscription via World Wide Web / xiii, 313 leaves, bound ill. 29 cm

published_or_final_version / Asian Studies / Master / Master of Arts

published_or_final_version / Asian Studies / Master / Master of Arts

This study focuses on the decade of 1921-31 in the career of social activist-historian Takamure Itsue (1894-1964). It is important to examine the concepts which developed early in her career as they formed the foundation of her later research on Japanese marriage and women's history. Takamure emerged as a poet and a theorist for the Japanese women's movement in the 1920s amidst the growing labour, agrarian, and feminist movements fueled by the turbulent economic change experienced nationally and internationally. It is essential to understand the pivotal themes which emerged in Itsue's work and to place these concepts within the context of the contributions made by other female activists in the late-Taisho to early Showa period and moreover, within the context of the leftist movement in general. During the first half of the 1920s Takamure had gained recognition as a poet and developed her four-stage theory of women's movements. In her poetry and articles she expressed her views on such matters as love, nature, and freedom. By the mid-1920s, Takamure had rejected the Western stage of women's movements and advocated a Japanese model of "New Feminism" which emphasized freedom, especially for women. She advocated the elimination of political and social authoritarianism which was controlled by the male-centred bureaucracy. She urged a shift towards an Asian society of agrarian self-government which emphasized harmony with nature, freedom from bureaucratic oppression, and women and men sharing in the production of the essentials of life. Through several debates in the late 1920s, including one with Marxist Yamakawa Kikue, Itsue further developed her views of anarchism. The publication of her women's anarchistic magazine, Fujin sensen (Women's front; March 1930-June 1931) allowed Itsue to focus her talents and express her position on issues such as urban versus rural economics and the feminist movement. Involvement with Fujin sensen also gave Takamure the opportunity to broaden her contacts with other anarchists, both male and female, and to expand her knowledge of farmers' issues. When the periodical ceased publication, Itsue, at the age of thirty-seven, embarked on a research plan which would take the rest of her life. Intrigued by the work of the eighteenth-century scholar Motoori Norinaga, she decided first to investigate the history of marriage, which she felt played a major role in the long chronicle of women's oppression. Itsue1s decision resulted from a gradual process strengthened by her activities in the 1920s. Some writers disagree with this statement and argue that Takamure's real contributions to Japanese history were made in the latter half of her life. Others contend that to ignore or negate the activities of the first half of her life presents an imbalanced view of her career. This thesis therefore uses a variety of "re-discovered" primary sources, including scholarly articles, periodicals and books to raise several historiographical issues related to the above two streams of thought. They include the role of Itsue's husband, Kenzo, in the virtual elimination of her anarchistic thought and views on the wartime period from her collected works. Further, Takamure1s intellectual development is discussed with respect to the following issues: (1) her alleged "ideological conversion" in 1940, (2) her agrarian concepts of the 1920s compared with those of the agrarian movement in the 1930s, and (3) her concepts of the Emperor and especially Shinto thought. / Arts, Faculty of / Asian Studies, Department of / Graduate

Wong, Yee Lam Elim. / Thesis (M.Phil.)--Chinese University of Hong Kong, 2013. / Includes bibliographical references. / Electronic reproduction. Hong Kong : Chinese University of Hong Kong, [2012] System requirements: Adobe Acrobat Reader. Available via World Wide Web. / Abstracts also in Chinese.

Based on the author's ethnographic research at the Karakuwa fishing community in Japan, this thesis explains a cultural process of the local people's synthesis of the values they place on nature and their everyday behavior in a modern industrial world. Explicated by ethnographic narrative, this study focuses on a revitalization movement similar to others attempted by fishermen in other parts of Japan. These revitalization movements embody values, held by fishermen for centuries, that nature should be respected. These movements also serve as symbolic activities to resurrect natural resource users' visions of nature, that emphasize the connectedness of all parts of nature including humans. In the specific revitalization movement studied here, the activists insist on the fishermen's knowledge of the connection between reforestation upstream on a coastal river and the coastal fishing ground. This study also demonstrates how significant it is to know the insiders' points of view and their cultural values when we try to understand the relationship between humans and nature. By studying what kind of traditional knowledge the Karakuwa fishermen have utilized to support the fishermen's reforestation activities and what has been dismissed, we can gain insight into the process of value transformation that takes place side by side with the actual environmental degradation and economic changes experienced by the local fishermen. In this study, the conclusion is that local people manage with those contradictions by categorizing events along a continuum between "reality" and "ideal." This study contributes to the local people in the Karakuwa fishing community as a source of cultural information extending their knowledge about their indigenous identity and furthering their understanding of how they revitalize their local traditions yet modernize in this era of globalization. / Graduation date: 2003

This dissertation examines the link between anarchism and agrarian thought in modern Japan through the investigation of the life and ideas of radical intellectual Ishikawa Sanshiro (1876-1956). I track its emergence from the time of Ishikawa's involvement in the socialist movement in the early 1900s to its development during his exile years in Europe between 1913 and 1920 and then after his return home through to the end of the Pacific War. I show how concern for the traditions and condition of farming communities informed a certain strand of non-violent anarchism premised on environmental awareness and cooperative principles fostered through the practices of everyday life. By rescuing from near historiographical oblivion a major dissenting figure of modern Japan, this study gives prominence to a distinctive anarchist intellectual contribution. I examine both the theoretical premises and related socio-political applications, highlighting Ishikawa's role for over five decades as a creative force of social change and a bulwark against authoritarianism. Thus, this work puts forward a more nuanced understanding of the movement of popular agrarianism that marked the interwar period, often pigeon-holed by historians as an adjunct of radical nationalism. I also probe the ecological critique embedded in Ishikawa's vision of the man-nature interaction, which remained vital over the decades and has direct relevance to presentday concerns. The tracing of Ishikawa's connections, both transnational and within Japan, provides the main methodological axis of this study. It appraises dissenting politics through the lens of actual praxis rather than categorization of ideological differences. Likewise, transnational connections are given agency as a mutually creative process rather than as a unidirectional transmission of ideas and values from West to East.

published_or_final_version / Asian Studies / Master / Master of Arts

published_or_final_version / Japanese Studies / Master / Master of Philosophy

published_or_final_version / Comparative Asian Studies / Master / Master of Arts