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Kusunose’s Tax Protest in Meiji Japan

March 25, 2015 By Pam

36-parasol-womanKusunose Kita (1836-1920), a 45-year-old widow, resented her situation. After her husband’s death, she assumed his property tax responsibilities, but was denied his political rights. In September, 1878, to make a point, she attempted to vote in a local election. After she was turned away, she wrote a bold letter to government authorities. It read in part:

I do not have the right to vote. I do not have the right to act as guarantor. My rights, compared with those of male heads of households, are totally ignored. Most reprehensible of all, the only equality I share with men who are heads of their households is the onerous duty of paying taxes.

Kusunose Kita, “Grandmother Popular Rights”

Kusunose’s letter, the first known public petition written by a woman in Japan, was reprinted in newspapers across the country. Overnight, Kusunose earned the honorary appellation Minken Baasan, “Grandmother Popular Rights.” Because she dared question the status quo, she became a symbol of women’s new struggle for empowerment during the Meiji period (1868-1912).

Ueki Emori, leader of Japan’s popular-rights movement

Ueki Emori, leader of Japan’s popular-rights movement

The Home Ministry was not impressed by Kusunose’s insistence that “rights and duties must go together” and demanded that her back taxes be paid immediately.

One man who was impressed, however, was Ueki Emori (1857-1892), the leader of Japan’s popular-rights movement and champion of women’s rights. After reading the letter, he met with Kusunose and several other women to hear their ideas. In 1879, he published a series of essays promoting women’s equality.

36-womenThe new ideas of justice made sense to other progressive thinkers as well, especially in Kōchi Prefecture, on the island of Shikoku, the birthplace of Japan’s human rights movement in the Meiji period. There, both men and women worked outside of the home to make ends meet. A mother’s movement helped establish numerous daycare centers. Kōchi is sometimes called the “Kingdom of Nursery Schools.”

And it was in Kōchi that the local government found a legal loophole and allowed women to vote in assembly elections in 1880. The national government closed the loophole in 1884, but it was a start. The seeds of a new day had been planted, thanks, in part, to Kusunose’s brave protest.

TO GO DEEPER

36-BookAnderson, Marnie S. A Place in Public: Women’s Rights in Meiji Japan. Harvard University Asia Center, 2011.

Hane, Mikiso, ed. “Introduction” from Reflections on the Way to the Gallows: Voices of Japanese Rebel Women. NY: Pantheon Books, 1988.

Sievers, Sharon L., Flowers in Salt: The Beginnings of Feminist Consciousness in Modern Japan. Stanford, CA: Stanford University Press, 1983.


“Aspects of Women (1888), the woodblock art of Taiso Yoshitoshi” (2:16 mins.)


“Women’s Suffrage Around the World” by Encyclopaedia Britannica (4:30 mins.)

Filed Under: Featured Tagged With: Flowers In Salt, Grandmother Popular Rights, Japanese women’s suffrage, Kusunose Kita, Marnie Anderson, Meiji era, Mikiso Hane, Reflections on the Way to the Gallows, tax protest, Ueki Emori

Pam McAllister

In 1982, I edited the anthology Reweaving the Web of Life: Feminism and Nonviolence and then wrote two books about women’s use of resistance and action: You Can't Kill the Spirit and This River of Courage.

I've spent a lifetime compiling stories of courageous, creative actions, categorizing them (a la Gene Sharp), writing books and articles, speaking at university forums, church retreats, feminist conferences. I’ve also joined in the action -- antiwar protests in the '70s, Take Back the Night marches in the '80s, prison reform rallies in the '90s, and Occupy Wall Street actions in recent years.

I am currently researching more examples of nonviolent action for peace and justice around the world for two new books -- one for/about children and another about women (whose actions are still so often left out or overlooked).

Here I am with Barbara Deming, my mentor and friend, in Sugarloaf Key in the early ‘80s. The photo has faded, but the memories and love have not.

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