23 Facts About Shimizu Shikin

Shimizu Shikin, pen name of Shimizu Toyoko, was a Japanese novelist and women's rights activist of the Meiji period in Japan.

Shimizu Shikin became one of the first women professional journalists in Japan.

Shimizu Shikin graduated from Kyoto Municipal Women's Teacher Training School at the age of fourteen and was considered highly educated in a society which still believed education beyond primary school for women was not worthwhile.

Unable to continue her education, Shimizu Shikin made use of her father's library which contained western literary classics as well as works by Japanese intellectuals.

Shimizu Shikin was one of the activists who presented a petition in 1888 hoping to reform the penal code, which among other things made adultery by women a punishable crime.

Shimizu Shikin spoke out against polygyny and its impact on women.

At 23, Shimizu Shikin moved to Tokyo to work at Iwamoto Zenji's journal Jogaku zasshi, just a few months after a legislative act had been passed prohibiting women from political participation in assemblies.

Shimizu Shikin began working simultaneously as the writing instructor at the Meiji Girls' School.

Around this same time, Shimizu Shikin began an affair with Oi Kengaro, common law husband of Kageyama Hideko, who had become her best friend.

Shimizu Shikin became pregnant during the course of the relationship and took a leave of absence, returning home to Kyoto, where her father was gravely ill.

Shimizu Shikin cared for him and gave birth to her son.

Oi, pressuring Shimizu Shikin to marry him, confused the addresses in letters he sent to the two women, and Hideko learned of the affair.

Shimizu Shikin suffered a breakdown and was hospitalized in 1892 and her son was sent to live with family members.

In 1895, her husband went abroad to study in Germany, and Shimizu Shikin moved back to Kyoto, living with her mother-in-law and writing as a correspondent.

Shimizu Shikin employed different names for different genres, such as using Tsuyuko for fiction.

Shimizu Shikin wrote for Taiyo, a general interest magazine, in a column entitled Hanazono Zuihitsu and she used her real name, Kozai Toyoko.

Shimizu Shikin's husband returned from his studies around 1900 and Shimizu's last known writings appeared the following year.

Shimizu Shikin joined him in Tokyo, where he became the president of the Tokyo University of Agriculture and she retired from writing.

However her son Yoshishige recalled an exchange between Shimizu Shikin and her husband where she had talked about taking up writing again and he said to her "But the tensai is a gusai ".

Shimizu Shikin raised six children and cared for her elderly father and brother after she stopped writing, maintaining a home and the social responsibilities of a university president.

Shimizu Shikin was the first professional woman journalist in Japan, forced to turn to writing when public activism was barred.

Shimizu Shikin wrote about the right to equality, evaluating such themes as women's education, marriage, divorce, double standards towards men and women, and discrimination towards the Burakumin.

Shimizu Shikin strove to impart her works with encouragement for women to seek their own emancipation and have the courage to express themselves.