Beauty In Disarray

By: Sanford Goldstein and Harumi Setouchi and Kazuji Ninomiya

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Synopsis: Setouchi was eminently qualified to write this historical novel on women's liberation in Japan, which had its roots in sexual politics, socialism, and anarchism, movements in decline following the famous massacre after the GreatKanto Earthquake that devastated Tokyo and neighboring prefectures on September 1, 1923. Among those put to death in the frenzied and prejudicial aftermath of the quake was Noe Ito (1895-1923), the heroine of Beauty in Disarray. In addition to the life of Noe Ito, Beauty in Disarray has in-depth portraits of Raicho Hiratsuka (1886-1971), Ichiko Kamichika (1888-1981), and Sakae Osugi (1885-1923). Raicho became famous in 1908 as a result of the Baien Incident, when she supposedly planned a double love suicide with the novelist Sohei Morita (1881-1949), whose later novel Baien (Smoke, 1909) celebrates the affair. In 1911 Raicho and other young unmarried women from the upper classes founded the Seitosha (the Bluestocking Society). Seito, the society's journal, was for women only. Its first number contained Raicho's famous manifesto "In the Beginning Woman was the Sun" (Genshijosei wa taiyo de atta)