WOMEN UNDER POLYGAMY
consequently vied with one another in wooing them with poems and songs."[1]
At a later period Kaibara, a great teacher, who lived between 1630 and 1714, taught that ignorance and lack of intellectual exercise was the chief cause of women's defects, and he recommended a full education suited to their powers. He not only enjoined the teaching of household economy, but he directed that women should study mathematics. Up till seven years of age, girls and boys were to be trained together. Girls must be trained in "womanly virtues, womanly address, womanly deportment, and womanly service."
Kaibara does not advocate the usurpation by women of the avocations considered to be in the province of men only. He insists upon "womanliness." But later reformers ventured further on the path of feminine emancipation. Women have been encouraged to practise medicine, and in time other professions will be open to them. Undoubtedly, Japanese women of the educated class are gaining wider scope year by year.
St. Francis Xavier's mission to Japan wrought certain marked changes in the position of women. More girls' schools were established. The reform in women's education progressed. In 1871 the Emperor
- ↑ "Fifty Years of New Japan," Count Okuma.
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