Bingham, Marjorie y Susan Hill Gross (1987). Women in Japan. From Ancient Times to the Present, St. Louis Park, Glenhurst Publication, pp. 1-83

Palabras claves: Historia de Japón, Heian, Confucio, Sei Shonagon, Murasaki Shikibu, mitos fundacionales, género, clases altas, educación.

Resumen:

En el texto, las autoras realizan un recorrido por la historia de Japón, enfocándose en la perspectiva de las mujeres. Comienzan narrando el mito fundacional de Japón, en el cual, la diosa Amaterasu envió a su nieto a fundar un Nuevo pueblo y que sus descendientes lo poblaran.

Igualmente, describen la situación religiosa de los inicios de Japón, desde el Shintoismo hasta el Budismo. Ambos sistemas de creencia era inclusivos en algunos aspectos, pero segregaban a las mujeres en otros. En este sentido, historicamente han existido numerosas mujeres sacerdotas (Mikos), pero reproducen creencias en donde aspectos propios de la biología de la mujer, las hacían impuras.

Asimismo, habla de la introducción del confucianismo en el Japón antiguo y cómo la mujer en este sistema era considerada en un nivel inferior al hombre. No obstante, dicho sistema no llegó a imponerse completamente sino hasta el periodo de Tokugawa.

En el siguiente capítulo, hacen referencia a la situación de las mujeres en el periodo Heian. Al surgimiento de las mujeres escritoras y sus principales características. Entre los elementos principales de las vidas de estas mujeres, se encuentra la educación que recibieron, la cual era privilegiada debido a su estatus.

Finalmente, las autoras hablan de los matrimonios de la época, los cuales permitían a las mujeres de cierto nivel socioeconómico mantener ciertas libertades en sus propios espacios.

Opinión

Considero que el texto es un poco optimista con respecto a la situación de las mujeres. Sin embargo, confirma mis sospechas con respecto a la educación recibida por Sei Shonagon y Murasaki Shikibu. Lamentablemente no menciona nada sobre las condiciones de las mujeres de otros niveles socioeconómicos.

Es importante que revise también algunos de los autores citados por ellas. Y no debo olvidar tomar en cuenta, tanto el origen occidental de las autorar como la época en que el libro fue escrito (1987)

Citas relevantes:

CHAPTER 1. あまてらす おおみかみ

"The few written sources [of japanese ancient history] deal mainly with female religious figures and the lives of the upper-class women." (Bingham y Gross, 1987:5).

"...Amaterasu is said to have sent her granson to rule the islands of Japan..." (Bingham y Gross, 1987:7).

"The japanese emperors and empresses trace thier origin in an unbroken line to Jinmu Tennō [first emperor of Japan and decendant of Amaterasu] and, therefore to Amaterasu." (Bingham y Gross, 1987:7).

CHAPTER 2. RELIGION AND JAPANESE WOMEN

"The Shintō has allowed for important positions for women and a view which include female kami and important female deities such Amaterasu. But somo elements on Shintōism have been negative for women. Like many of the world religions, Shintōism has a strong sense of pollution which occurs through having contact with death, disease, excrement, menstruation of spilling of blood. When pollution has occurred, varios purification rites are needed for cleansing those that have become polluted. It was thought that women with monthly menstrual cycles could pollute some ceremonies or hallowed places. Therefore many sacred areas, such the top of Mount Fuji as well as shrines, were closed to women." (Bingham y Gross, 1987:23).

WOMEN AND BUDDHISM. OPPORTUNITIES AND RESTRICTIONS

"Members of the imperial family --sisters of the emperors, former empresses, or dispaced wives-- could often leave the court to retire to a Buddhist convent where they might spend their time in prayer of doing charitable works." (Bingham y Gross, 1987:25).

"... Buddhist convents sometimes became places of refuge for upper-class women whose fortunes had decline..." (Bingham y Gross, 1987:25).

"Buddhism also contained some special restrictions on women. Like the Shintō religion, Buddhism had a strong sense that some acts lr conditions are purifying while others are polluting. Menstruation and childbirth were both considered polluting conditions, and because women might be menstruating of have just given birth, they were excluded from some religious rites. The Buddhist monk Shinran, who in the 13th century founded an important Buddhist cult, started the idea that women could not, as women, enter paradise, as he claimed that 'women nature are conventous and sinful...' [en Robins-Mowry, The Hidden Sun, p.23]. The Chinese Buddhist Tao-Hsüan (596-667 A.D.) had listed what he considered to be the sins of women. Seven sins were particulary thought to be major ones and were repeated in later Japanese Buddhist literature:

1. Women arouse sexual desire in men.

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2. Women are jealous.3. Women are deceitful and smile even when they do not mean it.4. Women neglect their religious duties and think only of fine clothes.5. The honest words of women are few.6. Women have no shame.7. The bodies of women are forever unclean. [En Morrel, "Mirrow for Women,"

p.67]

(Bingham y Gross, 1987:28)

WOMEN AND CONFUCIAN PRINCIPLES - TRIPLE OBEDIENCE AND FILIAL PIETY

El budismo fue introducido a Japón desde Corea y China al mismo tiempo que las ideas de Confucio en los siglos VI antes de nuestra era.

Confucianism = ethical system

"An essential element in Confucianism was that correct behavior would bring order and that the correct way for individuals to behave depended on their position in a hierarchical order. By hierarchical order Confucious and his followers meant there was a crear ranking of positions from positions from superior to inferior; for example, Confucious believed older was superior to younger, male to female, and certain occuparion would rank over others." (Bingham y Gross, 1987:31).

"Confucian beliefs severely restricted the independence of women because they were taught to follow the 'triple obedience' doctrine. This doctrine set forth that a woman was to obey:

Her parents when she was young. Her husband when she was married. Her son when she was old.

According to Confucianism, ther would never be a time when a woman would not be under the control of a male relative." (Bingham y Gross, 1987:32).

"Sons were instructed not to love their wives to much because, 'if you love your wife, you spoil your mother's servant [en William H. Forbis, Japan Today: People, Places, Power (New York: Harper & Row, 1975), p. 35]." (Bingham y Gross, 1987:32)

"As mentioned earlier, Confucian philosophy strongly opposed women rulers. It was considered to be against the 'natural order' to be ruled by a woman since, according to the Confucian hierarchy or ranking system, women were subordinate to men. That women had been in powerful leadership positions in early Japan did not fit Confucian ideals wich said that a woman ruling was 'like a hen crowing at dawn." (Bingham y Gross, 1987:32).

"Some observers have commented that the requirement of strict self-discipline and obedience in young women by the Confucian system actually created strong and reaponsable women, making them 'the stabilizing backbone of Japanese society' [en: Dorothy Robbins-Mowry, The Hidden Sun: Women in Modern Japan (Boulder, Colorado: Westview Press, 1983), p.26]." (Bingham y Gross, 1987:32-33)

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"The sever restictions on women dictated by the Confucian system only came into practice in Japan in medieval times. During the Tokugawa era (1603-1867), the feudal goverment attempted to use the Confucian system to create a strong central authority. Particulary, then, in the Tokugawa period, neo-Confucian principles became a major part of the training of Japanese women." (Bingham y Gross, 1987:35).

CHAPTER 3.

WOMEN WRITERS OF THE HEIAN AGE - A "BLAZING FIRE"

[Tamie Kamiyama, "Ideology and Patterns in Women's Education in Japan," unpublished Ph.D. dissertation, St. Louis University, 1977, p.5.]

[Ivan Morris, tr., The Pillow Book of Sei Shonagon, Introduction by Robin Duke (London: The Folio Society, 1979), p.16.]

In Heian times... "Knowing Chinese and being able to write Chinese Poetry became status symbols which showed off one's intellectual abilieties. The few women educated at all were generally thought to be incapable of learning Chinese and were excluded automatically from being thaught this foreing languaje..." (Bingham y Gross, 1987:39).

"During the Heian period, the Japanese created their own writing system based on Chinese characters. This made writing much simpler. In the beginning this system was call women's writing system, and men tended to use the Chinese writing system. In the Heian period, women could take advantage of this japanese writing system to write more easily and freely. However, this women writers were also well-educated people." (Bingham y Gross, 1987:40).

"Women writers were generally from the upper classes and were often the daugthers of provincial governors and other well-to-do officials. They had the finantial resources to be somewhat independent. Although not taught Chinese, these women writers had been educated at home by tutors and could read and write in Japanese.

Beside being educated, this particular group of upper-class women had some control over their own time, a condition necessary for a writer. This women authors were not from the poorer classes in which women's time would be taken up with the physical labors necessary for survival, nor were they of the imperial elite whose courtly duties would often interfere with the quiet hours needed for writing. Two of the most famous Heian women writers, Sei Shōnagon and Murasaki Shikibu, were from families which illustrated this pattern." (Bingham y Gross, 1987:40).

"Fathers often encouraged their daugthers to become educated so they could be placed at one of the imperial Japanese courts. An education was a prerequisite for being selected a courtier. There were several possible advantages for women living in court. They might:

Increase their chances for marrying higher up on the social scale.

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Gather valuable information that would help further the carrers of their males relatives.

Develop useful social graces." (Bingham y Gross, 1987:40-41).

"Sei Shōnagon uses her diary to make fun of the inadequacies she noticed in her society, particularly those of men of the Heian courts." (Bingham y Gross, 1987:41).

"The women's observations about life at the Japanese courts have made the Heian Age one of the most vividly described eras in world history. Their view was, in reality, a limited one. The world outside the courts was rarely described." (Bingham y Gross, 1987:41).

"Women extensively involve in writing and literary criticism, either as friends or rivals, created and unusual situation in Heian Japan. The acceptable roles for upper-class women were limited and the court rules often restrictive, but they did actively participate in the creation of art. Sei Shōnagon, in her outspoken way, may have too reaily put down those whose lives differed from hers, but her comments illustrate the freedom of choice present for Heian court women." (Bingham y Gross, 1987:45).

THE STATUS OF THE UPPER-CLASS WOMEN OF THE HEIAN AGE

"Women in Heian Japan enjoyed higher status than later Japanese women in other areas, besides of the artisticc recognition. The status of women in this period of Japanese history may have been comparatively high because of:

The particular marriage system prevalent at that time. Certain property rights that women were allowed. A sense of mutual sexual enjoyment accepted by Heian culture. The prestige gained from being a highly literate group of women." (Bingham y

Gross, 1987:53-53)

"The Confucian system was later adopted by the Japanese, but the Heian marriage system, as represented in the diaries of court ladies and Murasaki Shikibu's novel The Tale of Genji, was not restricted to the Confucian model. Rather, there seems to have been no one accepted system but a number of possible choices." (Bingham y Gross, 1987:54).

Diferentes sistemas matrimoniales:

1. "Virilocal (or patrilocal): the husband and wife live nearby or with the husband's parents.

2. Uxorilocal (or matrilocal): the wife and husband live nearby or with the wife's parents.

3. Neolocal: the married couple set up an independent household, not necessarily near to eather of their parents.

4. Duolocal: the wife lives separately --usually with her parents-- and the husband visits her at her home.

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Of the four marriage systems, the first represented the Confucian one where the young married couple lived under the control of the oldest male authority in the husband's family. This system was not common in Heian times. The other three choices were those usually practiced, with uxorilocal -- the couple living near the wife's parents-- most common." (Bingham y Gross, 1987:54)

"Providing women --at least upperclass women-- with an education was another diference between the Heian age and some other later periods of Japanese history." (Bingham, 1987:56).

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