In the Beginning, Woman Was the Sun: The Autobiography of a Japanese Feminist

Raicho Hiratsuka (1886-1971) was the most influential figure in Japan's early women's movement. In 1911, she established Bluestocking (Seito), Japan's first literary journal run by women. In 1920, she founded the New Women's Association, Japan's first nationwide women's organization to campaign for female suffrage. Soon after World War II, she organized the Japan Federation of Women's Organizations. In the Beginning, Woman Was the Sun is Raicho Hiratsuka's autobiography, recounting her rebellion against the strict social codes of the time. Hiratsuka came from an upper-middle class Tokyo family, and her restless quest for truth led to intensive Zen training at Japan Women's College. After graduation, she gained brief notoriety for her affair with a married writer but quickly established herself as a brilliant and articulate leader of feminist causes. This richly detailed memoir presents a woman who was at once idealistic and elitist, fearless and vain, and a perceptive observer of society.