clipout:Yanagiwara Byakuren (柳原白蓮) was a Japanese poetess and aristocrat of the Taishō-Shōwa era.
clipout: Yanagiwara Byakuren (柳原白蓮) was a Japanese poetess and aristocrat of the Taishō-Shōwa era. "She chose a most dramatic way to divorce her husband–by publishing a letter in the Asahi newspaper in 1921, denouncing him and their sham of a marriage. This was possible only because Yanagiwara was established as a poet and had influential friends in publishing. Her frontal “assault on Japan’s feudalistic morals and mores” stirred up a storm. Right-wing groups took to the streets to condemn it as moral travesty and death threats followed. But liberals saw an opportunity to educate citizens on the need for social change. Yanagiwara had not expected her letter to elicit so much public reaction. To her, it had merely been a means to end a relationship which had robbed her of her dignity. All the same, it exposed the hypocrisy in a society where “a man could flaunt any number of mistresses but a wife who took a lover was subject to punishment by legal authorities.” Book excerpt from http://www-cgi.cnn.com/ASIANOW/asiaweek/magazine/99/0917/books_jpwomen.html -- source link
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