Samurai Women Essay

Japan has one of the highest literacy rates in the world. Starting from the Edo period, Japan was no longer a state of conflict, but rather a state of harmony. Warriors’ priorities were to perform tasks as bureaucrats instead of being fighters on the battlefield. The origin of common education originated around this time, but it was not around later in the Edo period where education became more available to women. It is certain that women did not have the same opportunities as their male counterparts. However, compared to modern perceptions on women’s literacy during this period, women had many opportunities and a lot of them received the same amount of education, as did men. It is hard to conclude the education system in Japan in general,
The commoner women of course were separated from the other students. Samurai women compared to commoners had much heavier regulations in their daily lives. As Yamakawa Kikue writes in her book Women of the Mito Domain, samurai women rarely left their household. Samurai women received most of their education from their fathers or female tutors. The text they had to study differed among their family situation. One of the fundamental reasons that people believed women should be educated was because they wanted to enhance women morality than to enhance women becoming thinkers. Evidence of this is the readings that women had to read as part of their education. Certain books were considered appropriate for female readers. Chinese texts for women were also favored in women’s education. Those such as Analects, the Classical of Filial Piety, Biographies of Women and Commandments for Women were mentioned by influential sinologist Yamaga Soko citing from Zhu Xi (Kornicki, Patessio and Rowley 9). Most women did not start their education by reading text such as these. While male and female curriculum varied, girls started off learning with the same