Unpinning History: Japanese Posters in the Age of Commercialism, Imperialism, and ModernismMain MenuIntroductionJapan in the Age of Commercialism, Imperialism, and ModernismThe Rise of Tourism and the Era of Ocean LinersThe Rise of Tourism and the Development of Railway NetworksProvocation of Citizenship: Posters for the Ministry of CommunicationsExhibition CultureBijin: Posters with a Beautiful WomanArrival of Modern Commercial DesignBibliographyCollection NoteReuse and Remix this Exhibition
[1] Barbara Sato. The New Japanese Woman
12020-06-18T14:03:52-07:00Curtis Fletcher3225f3b99ebb95ebd811595627293f68f680673e371402plain2020-06-18T14:06:04-07:00Curtis Fletcher3225f3b99ebb95ebd811595627293f68f680673eBarbara Sato. The New Japanese Woman: Modernity, Media, and Women in Interwar Japan (Durham, N.C: Duke University Press, 2003).
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12020-06-18T14:05:44-07:00Moga in Taishō Japan1plain2020-06-18T14:05:44-07:00Moga or “modern girl” emerged from the new cosmopolitan Taishō period (1912-1926), in which mass consumerism, production, and media largely defined the era.[1] She represented a newfound liberation, divorced from the previous state-mandated expectations and laws — such as the Meiji Civil Code (1890) — which had relegated the legal and social statuses of the woman to the home and her family. Instead of performing exclusively as wife, mother, daughter, or sister, moga filled various positions in urban spaces, whether this be consumer or professional working woman. As practitioners of shūyō — self-cultivation practices of self-care, shopping, reading and spending time outside of the home —moga was both increasingly feminine and disruptive to the long established role of women. Scholarly debate has argued to what degree moga is the product of Westernization — whether she symbolized an idealization of Euro-American ideals, or is rather an image of cosmopolitan trends worldwide during the period. Regardless, her birth must be contextualized within a modern mass media and consumer market, in which the attitudes, behaviors, and duties of women were undeniably challenged and reexamined in Japan. (Sophie Ceniza)