I haven’t read this yet, but I was immediately drawn to the cover. The book is “Women and Public Life in Early Meiji Japan: The Development of the Feminist Movement,” by Mara Patessio, winner of 2nd Place in the 2012 European Association for Japanese Studies Book Prize.
This is a costume look I’d like to see. The hats are great and the color schemes are very different from what I am used to. The artist is Hashimoto Chikanobo.
The website book summary says:
“Women and Public Life in Early Meiji Japan focuses on women’s activities in the new public spaces of Meiji Japan. With chapters on public, private, and missionary schools for girls, their students, and teachers, on social and political groups women created, on female employment, and on women’s participation in print media, this book offers a new perspective on nineteenth- and early twentieth-century Japanese history. Women’s founding of and participation in conflicting discourses over the value of women in Meiji public life demonstrate that during this period active and vocal women were everywhere, that they did not meekly submit to the dictates of the government and intellectuals over what women could or should do, and that they were fully integrated in the production of Meiji culture.”
