Tamae Mizuta – författare

Following on from Sources of British Feminism, the present six volumes contain primary source material on radicalism, marriage, motherhood, sexuality and militancy.

The influence of Western ideas and know-how on the modernization of Japan remains one of the most important subjects in Japanese Studies; indeed, today’s Japan cannot be understood without a comprehension of the impact of thought and practice from the West. With regard to the history of women in Japan, Western ideas were especially central since the women’s movement in Japan was founded on the translation of Western books into Japanese, a process that began in Meiji times and continued into the early Showa era. During this period, along with classical texts by such authors as J. S. Mill and Herbert Spencer, some lesser books on the subject were also translated and published in Japanese. This new series from Edition Synapse—now available outside Japan from Routledge—collects some of those texts, many of which have been forgotten, but which nonetheless played important roles in the foundation of Japanese feminism. The second and the final collection includes facsimile reprints of the first editions of the English works which influenced the Japanese women’s movement in the early Showa era by authors, including, among others, Jessica Smith, Bernard Shaw, and Sylvia Pankhurst.

Some of the key primary source texts central to the history of British feminism are now being made available in the six volumes of Sources of British Feminism. These anthologies are intended to signal a tribute to the collective and collaborative efforts of writers whose work has effected profound social and political change. Writings compiled here include socialist manifestoes, miscellaneous pamphlets, personal reminiscences, full length biographies, histories of the various movements and impassioned treatises on the cause of women's rights by leading advocates like Mary Astell, Barbara Bodichon and Emmeline Pankhurst.