Women’s Improvement to the Hygienic Cultivators: The Race Betterment Theory of Watanabe Kanae (1858-1932)

SHINDO Kota

doi:10.15062/kyouikushigaku.63.0_19

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Other Title

婦人の改良と衛生
婦人の改良と衛生 : 渡邊鼎の束髪奨励論に着目して
フジンノカイリョウトエイセイ : ワタナベテイノソクハツショウレイロンニチャクモクシテ
―渡邊鼎の束髪奨励論に着目して―

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Description

In the history of education, it can be seen that the growth of women paying attention to hygiene stemmed from modernization. However, the process remains unclear in the Japanese context. This study examines why improving female hygiene rapidly became the matter during the 1880s, focusing on Watanabe Kanae (1858-1932) and his argument for the promotion of Sokuhatsu (western-bound hairstyle for women).　In 1885, Watanabe invented Sokuhatsu and delivered a speech promoting it as an economical, useful and hygienic new hairstyle at the meeting of the Sanitary Association. In that speech, he was unable to provide decisive hygienic advantages over the traditional hairstyle. However, only one month later, Watanabe insisted that women’s improvement to “hygienic cultivators” by converting into Sokuhatsu would solve the issue of Japanese physical weakness. His argument on the promotion of Sokuhatsu included a strategy for race betterment which was well known as a rudimental argument of eugenics in Japan.　This study reveals that Watanabe was rooted in eugenic ideas and advocated the improvement of the Japanese race, especially its physical inferiority to the Occidental. He was eager to strengthen the Japanese race to match the Westerner through hygienic reformation about bringing-up, food, clothing and shelter. Watanabe argued that women were important agents for race betterment; therefore, they must be transformed into the hygienic cultivators.　Watanabe’s argument was meaningful for educators who were concerned about the physical weakness of the Japanese and paid attention to physical education, such as school hygiene. Following Watanabe, other eugenicists, hygienists and educators advocated women’s role in race betterment. This paper shows that women, as essential cultivators of human betterment, were expected to be concerned with hygiene.

Journal

STUDIES IN THE HISTORY OF EDUCATION

STUDIES IN THE HISTORY OF EDUCATION 63 (0), 19-32, 2020

The Japan Society for Historical Studies of Education