Takamure Itsue: Japan’s Radical Matriarch Scholar

She was called a scandal monger, celebrity, and radical feminist. But Takamure Itsue is primarily remembered as a pioneer in the study of women’s roles in ancient Japan – a woman who spent over three decades in her forest hermitage, delving into ancient texts and uncovering the forgotten heritage of mothers.

Daughter of a Teacher from the Provinces

Takamure was born in 1894 into a poor family in rural Kumamoto Prefecture. Her father, despite humble circumstances, was a teacher and determined to provide his daughter with an education far surpassing the standards of Japanese girls at the time. He taught her classical Chinese and other subjects typically reserved for men.

Despite higher academic ambitions, the young Takamure did not complete higher education. For a time, she worked in a cotton mill, eventually returning home in 1914. She then taught at the same school as her father for three years, but provincial life could not satisfy her.

In 1918, she made a decision that would make her famous across Japan. As an unmarried woman, entirely alone, she embarked on the Shikoku pilgrimage—a traditional Buddhist temple route. Her articles describing her experiences spread nationwide, and Takamure quickly became a public figure.

Scandal and the Birth of a Feminist

In 1917, she met Hashimoto Kenzō, who became her lifelong partner and editor. The pair began living together in 1919, officially marrying in 1922. Two years later, Takamure moved to Tokyo, where she began working in the press and actively participated in the intellectual life of the capital.

In 1925, a scandal broke when Takamure left her husband and home in the company of another man. Although she soon reconciled with Hashimoto, the public uproar persisted. She responded with the poem „Ie de no shi” („Poem on Leaving Home”), published in a collection provocatively titled „Tokyo Has a Fever.” The text was a manifesto of a woman refusing to submit to social expectations.

A year later, Takamure met Hiratsuka Raichō—the legendary founder of the feminist journal „Bluestocking.” This friendship opened the doors to the Japanese women’s movement. In 1926, she published „Ren’ai sōsei,” her first systematic outline of her views on love and gender relations.

An Anarchist Versus a Marxist

As the main breadwinner for her family, Takamure wrote prolifically – articles, essays, and polemics for magazines. Her most significant debate was with Yamakawa Kikue, conducted in 1928–1929 in the pages of „Fujin Kōron.” The two leading intellectuals clashed over a fundamental question: the essence of marriage and motherhood.

Yamakawa, faithful to Marxist doctrine, criticized marriage as a bourgeois institution of economic oppression. Takamure proposed a completely different vision. Her anarchist utopia imagined a community where motherhood was central, not marginal. Mothers and their needs would form the foundation of a new social order.

In 1930, Takamure launched her own magazine – „Fujin Sensen” („Women’s Front”). This anarcho-feminist periodical survived sixteen issues before authorities shut it down in June 1931 amid rising fascist repression. This marked the end of a chapter in Takamure’s life.

Thirty-Three Years in a Forest Home

In July 1931, Takamure and Hashimoto withdrew to suburban Tokyo. They named their new home „Mori no ie” – „House in the Forest” – in homage to Henry David Thoreau and his famous „Walden.” Here began the most remarkable period of Takamure’s life. For the next 33 years, she never left this place.

„Without stepping beyond the threshold, one can know the world. The further one travels, the less one knows” – these words of Laozi could have served as her motto. Reportedly, she worked ten hours a day, studying texts from as far back as the seventh century. Her husband supplied her with books, and she immersed herself in the world of ancient Japan, seeking answers to the question: what was society like before patriarchy prevailed?

Her research focused on matrilineality – inheriting through the maternal line—and ancient marriage institutions. She analyzed women’s rights to own and inherit property in former times. In 1938, she published the groundbreaking „Bokeisei no kenkyū,” a study of the matrilineal system. After the war, she produced more important works: „Shōseikon no kenkyū” in 1953 and „Josei no rekishi” a year later.

Contradictions of a Great Mind

Takamure’s story is far from straightforward. During World War II, despite her anarcho-feminist beliefs, she wrote articles supporting Japanese imperialism in Asia. At the same time, she criticized the sexual violence perpetrated by the Imperial Japanese Army. This contradiction remains difficult to explain and is a source of controversy among scholars of her legacy.

She died in 1964, at age seventy, in her forest home. She never knew how much she influenced subsequent generations of women’s historians. Today, she is seen in many ways—for some, a radical feminist and anarchist; for others, a pioneer in the scholarly study of matriarchy.

Perhaps the most accurate description is „cultural healer”—someone who diagnosed the ills of modern society and sought healthier models in the past. Her life’s work was to prove that patriarchy is not the natural order of things, but a historical anomaly. Was she right? Her books, still unavailable in Polish, await broader discovery.