Blackwell Reference Online

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Born to a family of landed aristocracy on the southern island of Kyushu, Itō Noe would be forced into an arranged marriage after graduating from Ueno Girls High School. In protest she ran away to Tokyo were she would become a feminist anarchist seeking to break with the social conditions of Japan. In Tokyo she joined the Seitosha (Blue Stocking Society) and in 1915 became an editor of its magazine, Seito (Blue Stocking). This gave Itō the opportunity to develop her literary, aesthetic, and political capabilities. Skilled in several languages, including English, she translated articles by the anarchist Emma Goldman . In 1916 Itō met Ōsugi Sakae , a prominent anarchist, and abandoned the journal to assist isugi with his writings and political activism. As a couple, Itō and Ōsugi believed in the concepts of free love, which allowed Ōsugi to conduct an affair with fellow woman anarchist Ichiko Kamachiko. However, the concepts of free love soon collided with human nature as Kamachika stabbed and severely wounded Ōsugi with a knife in a fit of jealousy. The mass media used this incident to attack Itō, Ōsugi, and Kamachika for their immorality and the anarchist movement in general. Because of this bad publicity, several prominent members of the anarchist movement split from Itō and Ōsugi. In 1919 Itō and Ōsugi, along with fellow anarchists Wada Kyutaro and Kondo Kenji, published ... log in or subscribe to read full text