Hiratsuka Raichō, born on this day in 1886, was an anarchist writer, journalist, political activist, and pioneering Japanese feminist. Her efforts helped legalize Japanese women joining political organizations in 1922.

Upon graduating from university, Hiratsuka founded Japan’s first all-women literary magazine, Seitō (青鞜, literally “Bluestocking”), in 1911.

Hiratsuka began the first issue with the words, “In the beginning, woman was the sun”, a reference to the Shinto goddess Amaterasu, and to the spiritual independence which women had lost. Adopting the pen name “Raichō” (“Thunderbird”), she began to call for a women’s spiritual revolution.

Hiratsuka also founded the New Women’s Association with fellow women’s rights activist Ichikawa Fusae. It was largely through this group’s efforts that the Article 5 of the Police Security Regulations, which barred women from joining political organizations and holding or attending political meetings, was overturned in 1922.

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