Daughters in Boxes: Toshiko Kishida
Meet Toshiko Kishida, feminist in Meiji Japan who delivered the famous Daughters in Boxes Speech.
Hi, this is Kelly Chase and you are listening to History Detective, a podcast where I delve into the past to uncover the mysteries of history. Before I get started, I just wanted to celebrate that it has been 5 years since I started the History Detective Podcast, and if you wanted to help celebrate, I would love it if you could give the podcast a 5-star review wherever you listen!
Before we meet our Japanese feminist from the late 1800s Toshiko Kishida, we need a little context of what was happening in Japan. For almost 700 years, Japan was ruled by the Shogun, which was a high ranking military general but also an inherited position. During this time, different families ruled over Japan and one thing that was a fairly constant belief was that Japan preferred to be closed off to the rest of the world. Very few foreigners nor foreign influences were welcome in Japan. That was until the late 1800s when America came knocking at the door looking to open trade and tap into Japan’s vast resources. Because America had superior naval and military technology, Japan was forced to open their doors to the rest of the world. This brought an end to the rule of the Shogun and kickstarted a new era that is known as the Meiji Restoration. In this period of change, the feudal system was abolished, Japan militarised, and education became compulsory for girls and boys. And on the 14th of January 1863, this was the world that Toshiko Kishida was born into. By the time she was 20 years old, Toshiko delivered her famous “Daughters in their Boxes” speech in front of an audience of 500 plus people. Ironically, for making a speech about women being kept in boxes, she was herself arrested and put in a box- or a jail cell.
Many of the speeches that women made in Japan at this time, during this burgeoning political feminist culture, have since been destroyed, and one of the only reasons we have a copy of the “Daughters in their Boxes” speech is simply because she was arrested and put on trial for that speech.
During the 1880s there was a growing culture of political debate. Meetings and speaking tours were often held in theatres, temples and sometimes even bathhouses. These speeches were mainly done by men, but there weren’t any laws stopping women from attending or speaking. So, women not only attended these political meetings, but they started delivering speeches. This is when Toshiko started to become well known on the speaking circuit. She was not only the first woman in Japan to publicly argue for equal rights for women, but she was also sponsored by the Liberal Party to undertake a speaking tour. Her speeches were so inspiring, that they spurred women to start their own political organisations.
Toshiko Kishida was born into a merchant family. In the previous feudal system, the merchant class were quite low in the hierarchy, but in the new Meiji era, she was able to receive an education, in which she excelled. At 14 she received the highest score in the city of Kyoto in her academic exam and at 16, she was the first commoner invited to the royal Meiji court as a guest of the Empress Meiji as a lecturer and literary adviser. She resigned after 2 years, politely citing illness, but later wrote a poem that implied that although the palace was peaceful and full of beautiful women, that it was far from the real world and was imbued with a sense of boredom.
It was after this that she started to travel doing speaking tours and often attracted large audiences of women who were inspired by her speeches about generations of inequality experienced by women. She regularly appeared in the newspapers and in a two-year period between 1882 and 1883, she gave more than fifty popular speeches. Future feminist Hideko Kageyama said of her, “I was unable to suppress my resentment and indignation . . . and began immediately to organize women and their daughters ... to take the initiative in explaining and advocating natural rights, liberty and equality.”
Another aspect of change that Toshiko embraced was that of the modernising fashion and hair styles. Japanese journalists reported on her “resplendent dress and chic hairstyles”. It may seem like an insignificant point, but during the Meiji era, hairstyles were used to demonstrate either your alliance with or aversion to the westernisation that was happening in Japan. Men who still sported the long samurai top knot rejected the new Meiji ideals and men who cut their hair short embraced the political and cultural modernisation.
In 1871, the new government issued an edict- which is like an official order- announcing people were allowed to cut their hair short. Initially, the 1871 order did not specify that it applied only to men, but then in 1872, another edict was created this time banning women from cutting their hair. A newspaper article in 1872 discusses the shock of seeing short haired women. "Seeing the ugly bodies [from] this evil custom is unbearable".
But let’s circle back to one of the most important speeches Toshiko made in October 1883. Like I said earlier, the only reason that we have this transcript for this speech is because she was put on trial. At the bottom of the translation there is a note that says, “The policeman transcribed the speech himself” and “it is the first time that a policeman has read into court record the transcription of a speech that he himself painstakingly recorded.” Knowing how difficult it is to transcribe something in real time, it does make me wonder of the word-for-word accuracy of the speech.
The speech itself is about three and a half thousand words long and from my modern perspective, it is apolitical and relatively mild in its criticism, but apparently it was bad enough to land her in court for discussing politics. The gist of the speech was that Japanese families kept their daughters in metaphorical boxes to keep them safe, just as these days you would keep a pop-vinyl toy in its box for resale value. But in doing so, women become useless. Toshiko said, “They may have hands and feet and a voice--but all to no avail, because their freedom is restricted. Unable to move, their hands and feet are useless. Unable to speak, their voice has no purpose.” She also explains that women should be allowed to study before they get married, especially economics. Her reasoning is that if her husband is to die, she needs to be able to plan her financial future. She is not espousing complete independence for women, but instead, advocating for women to be able to become educated in order to safeguard their future. Toshiko’s speeches attracted a lot of people to her speaking tour, but this particular one landed her in court. Then, in the late 1880s, partly because of her influence as a speaker, a new law was introduced which denied women the right to attend or speak at political meetings.
Toshiko Kishida was only 40 when she died in 1901. She had contracted tuberculosis, which is a bacterial lung infection that can also spread to other parts of the body. She contracted the disease 6 years earlier, but as the disease progressed, she wrote about her symptoms in her diary, paralysing fevers, endless coughing, shortness of breath, and gradual loss of the ability to swallow or breathe comfortably.
Feminism in Japan did not begin nor end with Toshiko Kishida, but she certainly played a significant role in spreading the word and inspiring change.
This Kelly Chase, on the Case.
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