Hanayo Ikuta (14 October 1888 – 8 December 1970) (in Japanese, 生田花世), born Nishizaki Hanayo, was a Japanese feminist writer, editor, and educator.

Early life

Hanayo Nishizaki was born in Izumiya Village, Itano District, Tokushima Prefecture, the daughter of Yasutaro Nishizaki. She was a student at the Tokushima Prefectural Girls' High School, and trained to be a teacher.

Career

Ikuta wrote for magazines beginning in her teens, and was a elementary school teacher as a young woman. She moved to Tokyo in 1910, after her father died. Ikuta edited and wrote for literary magazines and women's periodicals, including ''Seitō ( Bluestocking), Beatrice,'' ''

Nyonin Geijutsu The ''Nyonin Geijutsu'' (女人芸術), which translates to ''Women's Arts'', was a Japanese women's literary magazine that ran from July 1928 to June 1932. It was published by Hasegawa Shigure. They published 48 issues that focused on feminism an ...

,'' and ''Women and Labor''. She wrote cultural reviews, including a 1914 review of a Japanese performance of

George Bernard Shaw George Bernard Shaw (26 July 1856 – 2 November 1950), known at his insistence simply as Bernard Shaw, was an Irish playwright, critic, polemicist and political activist. His influence on Western theatre, culture and politics extended from ...

's ''

Mrs. Warren's Profession ''Mrs. Warren's Profession'' is a play written by George Bernard Shaw in 1893, and first performed in London in 1902. The play is about a former prostitute, now a madam (brothel proprietor), who attempts to come to terms with her disapproving d ...

'', and first-person essays on womanhood, including essays on the "chastity debates". Her 1914 article, "On Hunger and Chastity", asked, "Is it possible for a female clerk to earn a livelihood and yet also not worry about being able to perfectly protect her precious chastity?" She concludes that the family, social, and economic structures of early 20th-century Japan forced some women to choose between life and respectability, by excluding women with no other support from property ownership and professions. Ikuta published a book of poetry in 1917, and a novel in the early 1920s. In the 1930s she visited Japanese troops in Taiwan, and wrote about Manchurian cuisine. During

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...

she was a government worker, before she was burned in an air raid. After the war, she led literary discussions for women, and published a popular edition of '' The Tale of Genji''. A quote by Ikuta was used on a poster for the 1946 general election, encouraging women to vote.

Personal life

She married writer and used his family name. Her husband died by suicide in 1930. She died in 1970, at the age of 82.

References

External links

* Tomi Suzuki
"Envisioning Women Writers: Female Authorship and the Cultures of Publishing and Translation in Early 20th Century Japan"
(PhD dissertation, 2012, Columbia University) {{DEFAULTSORT:Ikuta, Hanayo 1888 births 1970 deaths Japanese women writers Japanese editors People from Tokushima Prefecture Japanese feminists