Bluestocking (magazine)

Bluestocking (Seitō; 青鞜) was a Japanese feminist magazine founded in 1911 by Raicho Hiratsuka and produced by Hiratsuka and other members of the related group, the Bluestocking Society (Seitō-sha；青鞜社). An exhausted Hiratsuka turned over the reins to Noe Ito in 1915. Ito produced the journal with little assistance for almost another year. Its last issue was published in February 1916. Many members were referred to and referred to themselves as "New Women," a term whose negative connotations they rejected. Originally focusing on women's literature, it soon shifted focus towards women's liberation. Hiratsuka opened the first issue with the words, “In the beginning, woman was the sun.” (「原始、女性は太陽であった」) – a reference to the Shinto myth of creation. Contributors included renowned poet and women’s rights proponent Yosano Akiko and author Yoshiya Nobuko among others.

References

• Lowy, Dina (2007). The Japanese "new woman": images of gender and modernity. New Brunswick, N.J.: Rutgers University Press. ISBN 0813540461. 
• Suzuki, Michiko (2009). Becoming Modern Women: Love and Female Identity in Prewar Japanese Literature and Culture. Stanford University Press. ISBN 978-0804761987.