THE WORLD OF ŌOKU: THE SHOGUN’S WOMEN
A1867686 May Yamaguchi
INTRODUCTION
This exhibit will focus on women who lived in the Edo castle Honmaru goden aka “Ōoku” or more commonly known as the “Inner quarters” and “The Great Interior.” This exhibit will observe how the women came to enter the Ōoku and research about their purpose/influence to the social and political decision-making of the shogun. Most women were used as political tools. In other words, they had no choice but to follow what authorities such as landlords, daimyo, and head of household had decided how to treat the women since women ideals were established this way during Tokugawa period. It will also focus on particular historical figures were one of these people who lived in Ōoku such as Kazunomiya (1846-1877) and Tenshōin (1835-1883) and look into how elite women were living their life in an isolated place from the public while leaving significant impact. Observing from these examples, this exhibit will aim to argue how women in Ōoku were thriving against the women ideals in the Tokugawa period.
KEYWORDS
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Ōoku
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Inner quarters
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Great interior
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Working women
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Ideal Womanhood
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Elites in Ōoku
REFERENCES
Beerens, Anna. “Interview with Two Ladies of the Ōoku: A Translation from Kyūji Shimonroku”. Monumenta Nipponica, 63:2 (2008), pp 265-324. doi:10.1353/mni.0.0035
Cornell, L. Laurel. Was ‘three-and-a-half lines’ so bad?: Peasant women and divorce in early modern Japan. Signs 15:4 (1990), pp 710–32.
Haraguchi, Izumi, 原口泉. “Gekidou no Bakumatsu wo Ikinuita Tenshouin Atsuhime: Sono yonjyuhachinen no shougai towa.” "激動の幕末を生き抜いた天璋院篤姫: その四十八年の生涯とは." 口腔・咽頭科 22:1 (2009) pp1-2.
Hata Hisako. “Servants of the Inner Quarters.” In Servants of the Dynasty, ed. Anne Walthall, pp 172–90. University of California Press, 2008.
Kaibara, Ekiken. Women and Wisdom of Japan. Greater Learning for Women. (Translated by John, Murray) (1905), pp 11-46
Walthall, Anne. Review of “Ōoku: The Secret World of the Shogun’s Women by Cecilia Segawa Seigle and Linda H. Chance.” Monumenta Nipponica 69:2 (2014), pp. 284–91. doi:10.1353/mni.2014.0022
Yonemoto, Marcia. Review of Ōoku: The Secret World of the Shogun’s Women by Cecilia Segawa Seigle and Linda H. Chance. Journal of Japanese Studies 42:1 (2016), pp. 136–40. doi:10.1353/jjs.2016.0027