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podcasts. Hello and welcome to the History of Japan podcast, episode 267. Do Not Give Up Your Life.

This week I want to talk about one of the most celebrated and controversial figures in the history of Japanese feminism, a woman whose role in Japanese history is crucial and highly complex, and whose life story is fascinating to boot.

Her name was Yosano Akiko, or at least that's the name she became famous under, though

it's actually a pen name. Her birth name, which I will use here and here only because it is

so rarely used to describe her, was Ho Shoe, and she was born in Sakai, a port city on the outskirts of Osaka in 1878.

Her family were prosperous merchants, who made their money selling desserts, basically.

Yos noakiko grew up in relative comfort, though her family life was complex.

I'll let you hear it from her directly. This is from a memoir she wrote in 1909. Quote, I used to wonder if the couple I called my

parents were my real mother and father. My father had been terribly disappointed when I was born

...