was an important Japanese

feminist Feminism is a range of socio-political movements and ideologies that aim to define and establish the political, economic, personal, and social equality of the sexes. Feminism incorporates the position that society prioritizes the male po ...

and

politician A politician is a person active in party politics, or a person holding or seeking an elected office in government. Politicians propose, support, reject and create laws that govern the land and by an extension of its people. Broadly speaking, a ...

who served three terms in Japan's Imperial Diet after having been a leader in the early modern women's suffrage movement in Japan. She played an important role in various early Japanese women's rights movements, and she was a crucial part of Japan's consumer movement. She was a renowned activist in the 1920s, co-founding the New Women's Association with

Hiratsuka Raichō Hiratsuka Raichō (, transliterated according to the historical kana orthography; born Hiratsuka Haru, ; February 10, 1886 – May 24, 1971) was a Japanese writer, journalist, political activist, anarchist, and pioneering feminist in Japan. ...

and

Ichikawa Fusae was a Japanese feminist, politician and a leader of the women's suffrage movement. Ichikawa was a key supporter of women's suffrage in Japan, and her activism was partially responsible for the extension of the franchise to women in 1945. Early ...

, and eventually held a seat in the House of Councilors from 1947 to 1965 when she retired.

Biography

Life and activism

Oku Mumeo was born the eldest daughter of a third-generation blacksmith on October 24, 1895, outside of

Fukui is a Japanese name meaning "fortunate" or sometimes "one who is from the Fukui prefecture". It may refer to: Places * Fukui Domain, a part of the Japanese han system during the Edo period * Fukui Prefecture, a prefecture of Japan located in ...

. Her father disliked being a blacksmith and urged her to continually further her education. Her mother died of

tuberculosis Tuberculosis (TB) is an infectious disease usually caused by '' Mycobacterium tuberculosis'' (MTB) bacteria. Tuberculosis generally affects the lungs, but it can also affect other parts of the body. Most infections show no symptoms, in ...

on November 3, 1910, when she was still too young to remember much of her mother. She decided to further her education at the Japan Women's University in 1912.Her father died in the middle of February in 1918 at the age of forty-two. In late 1919, she received a visit from Hiratsuka Raichō who asked if she would be interested in co-founding a new organization, the New Women's Association, with the intention of petitioning the 42nd Diet on reforms to Article 5 of the

Police Safety Regulations The police are a constituted body of persons empowered by a state, with the aim to enforce the law, to ensure the safety, health and possessions of citizens, and to prevent crime and civil disorder. Their lawful powers include arrest and t ...

and also a petition to prevent men infected with a

venereal disease Sexually transmitted infections (STIs), also referred to as sexually transmitted diseases (STDs) and the older term venereal diseases, are infections that are spread by sexual activity, especially vaginal intercourse, anal sex, and oral se ...

from marryingFollowing the failure to revise Article 5, Ichikawa left for America, resigning her position as the head of the organization, and Raichō suddenly moved to the foot of

Mt. Akagi is a mountain in Gunma Prefecture, Japan. The broad, low dominantly andesitic stratovolcano rises above the northern end of the Kanto Plain. It contains an elliptical, 3 x 4 km summit caldera with post-caldera lava domes arranged along a N ...

in the Gumma Prefecture, leaving Oku as the head of the New Women's Association. Finally, on March 25, 1922, Oku Mumeo and the New Women's Association would succeed in revising Article 5 in the last day of the 45th Diet. Oku Mumeo would go on to dissolve the New Women's Associate on December 8, 1922, and form the Women's League on the seventeenth of that same month. With her growing fame in the women's activist circles, she was asked to move to Nakano in order to assist with the Nakano Consumer Union Movement in 1926. Working in the consumer movement she found the area of activist work that would drive her, but she would go on to lead, or at the very least be associated with, various women's activist movements and organizations, such as: the Association of Households, forming the Cooperative Women's Consumer Union, opposing the dissolution of the proletarian parties, and starting women's settlements with the Women's Settlement Movement.

Marriage and children

Oku Mumeo married a man named Oku Eiichi, a poet who never really had much success and was employed in the translation department of Sakai Toshihiko's ''Baihunsha''. She is survived by her son, Kyoichi Oku, and her daughter, Kii Nakamura, who, like her mother before her, served as chairman of the Housewives' Association.

Death and afterward

Oku Mumeo died on July 7, 1997, living to be a hundred and one years old. Due to her numerous contributions to activism in modern Japan, Japanese women are able to run for and hold public office and her Housewives' Association was able to improve the overall quality of life in Japan.

References

Bibliography

{{DEFAULTSORT:Mumeo, Oku Japanese feminists 1895 births 1997 deaths Japanese suffragists