Onna Daigaku
The Onna Daigaku (女大学 or "The Great Learning for Women") is an 18th-century Japanese educational text advocating for neo-Confucian values in education, with the oldest existing version dating to 1729. It is frequently attributed to Japanese botanist and educator Kaibara Ekken.
Education of women[edit]
The Onna Daigaku is cited as Ekken's most popular book, which was often gifted to new brides due to its accessible tone and a lack of general instructional materials for new families.[1]
It teaches the moral need for total subordination of women to the needs to the husband and family.[2] The book suggests that women are too stupid to trust themselves and must "distrust herself and obey her husband".[2] Scholars point to the wide circulation of the text as reflective of Edo-period misogyny.[3] It was roundly criticized by advocates of women's education during the Meiji era.[4]
Seven grounds for divorce[edit]
The book encourages several grounds for a husband to divorce his wife, including disobedience to her in-laws, infertility (unless a barren woman allows for adoption of a concubine's child), lewdness, jealousy, leprosy, talking too much, or compulsive thievery.[2]
References[edit]
- ^ Cranmer-Byng, L. (1905). Women and Wisdom of Japan. Albemarle Street, London: John Murray. ISBN 978-1437366136.
- ^ a b c de Bary, Theodore; Gluck, Carol; Tiedemann, Arthur (2001). Sources of Japanese tradition (2nd ed.). New York: Columbia University Press. ISBN 0231121393.
- ^ Bernstein, ed. with an introd. by Gail Lee (1991). Recreating Japanese women, 1600–1945. Berkeley: University of California press. ISBN 9780520070172.
{{cite book}}:|first1=has generic name (help) - ^ Okuma, Shigenobu (1903). Fifty Years of New Japan. Smith, Elder, & Company.
Further reading[edit]
- Onna Daigaku (translated), full text at the Internet Archive.