Laying the foundation

[Rob_Hugo@PortNW]

Raymond Mosser's lecture has opened my eyes to new interest and has cleared misconceptions of the role of women in Japan. Thanks to his graphic organizer and discussion for Tale of Genji by Murasaki Shikibu, I was able to realize that women had more power than women in other cultures during the same time period. A couple of things I learned from Mosser's was that the children belonged to the mother's clan versus the father's clan. Secondly, I learned that husbands & wives lived seperately, him with his family's home her with her family. What amazed me the most was that the female was allowed to have male visitors at might that were not their husbands as long as all males left the house before the morning sun came out. Finally the communication between husband and wife through poetry and her right to choose whether or not that was a good night for him to come over.

Thanks to this eye opening lecture I am able to see movies such as Memoirs of a Geisha as Hollywood entertainment only.

[Anonymous]

I was really fascinated with the feminist aspect of Japanese history as well. Learning that Japanese women inherited property and the difference in attitudes towards marriage and extrmartial relations really intrigued me. It also changed my perspectives towards Japanese history. I'm also interested to know how Confucianism changed women's rights.

[Anonymous]

I too was excited when I found out about the intimate relations and how the process and procedures go about. It seems very different that this is an acceptable part of culture, but come to think of it, in other cultures, couples do have extra-marital affairs. Maybe it seems more acceptable in the Japanese culture because it was written down. In some cultures, you don't see or hear about it.

I was also amazed that women were such prominant figures as writers in Japan's court days. To think that a woman was attributed to writing the first novel makes me feel fuzzy and warm inside! 😀 Yay.

There were many things I found interesting from both presenters for the Japan unit. I didn't know that women were even allowed to read and write. When I read the works selected for the unit, I find myself engrossed in the reading. I thought the pieces written by women tend to reflect more on love and courtly behavior, but nonetheless, it was still entertaining and humorous.

[Anonymous]

You bring up a good point, women knew how to read and write poetry. This is something that is unheard of in history. Majority of the time women had to learn how to be "good housewifes" cook, clean, take care of children. But here in Japanese culture women are being educated, can write amazing poetry, dye clothes and the best part is write a 52 chapter book. Women could inherit property & wealth. They didn't have to depend on anyone else to be able to survive and raise their children.

[Anonymous]

I was very surprise to find out that Japanese women could own property and that children belonged to their mother's lineage as opposed to their father's line. It was so refreshing to see this feminist concept in early Japanese history because my conception Japan has always been a male dominated society. It made sense how children should take the mother's name because you always do know who your mother is and who the father is is debatable.

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