Our Favorites: Masako Togawa

Womanica

Acast Creative Studios

History, Society & Culture, Education

4.3 • 920 Ratings

🗓️ 21 October 2025

⏱️ 7 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Masako Togawa (1931-2016) was a crime novelist, singer, and club owner. She created a chanson salon called the Blue Room, which catered to LGBTQIA+ artists and music enthusiasts during a time of legal discrimination, violence, and prejudice against queer people in Japan.

For Further Reading:

“Memories of Masako Togawa”
The Master Key by Masako Togawa
The Lady Killer by Masako Togawa

For the past six years, we’ve been telling the stories of women you may or may now know– but definitely should. This month, we’re bringing back our favorite Womanica episodes from across our back catalog. These are women throughout time and around the world who made their mark.

History classes can get a bad rap, and sometimes for good reason. When we were students, we couldn’t help wondering... where were all the ladies at? Why were so many incredible stories missing from the typical curriculum? Enter, Womanica. On this Wonder Media Network podcast we explore the lives of inspiring women in history you may not know about, but definitely should.

Every weekday, listeners explore the trials, tragedies, and triumphs of groundbreaking women throughout history who have dramatically shaped the world around us. In each 5 minute episode, we’ll dive into the story behind one woman listeners may or may not know–but definitely should. These diverse women from across space and time are grouped into easily accessible and engaging monthly themes like Educators, Villains, Indigenous Storytellers, Activists, and many more. Womanica is hosted by WMN co-founder and award-winning journalist Jenny Kaplan. The bite-sized episodes pack painstakingly researched content into fun, entertaining, and addictive daily adventures.

Womanica was created by Liz Kaplan and Jenny Kaplan, executive produced by Jenny Kaplan, and produced by Grace Lynch, Maddy Foley, Brittany Martinez, Edie Allard, Carmen Borca-Carrillo, Taylor Williamson, Sara Schleede, Paloma Moreno Jimenez, Luci Jones, Abbey Delk, Adrien Behn, Alyia Yates, Vanessa Handy, Melia Agudelo, and Joia Putnoi. Special thanks to Shira Atkins.

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Transcript

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0:00.0	Hello, from Wonder Media Network, I'm Jenny Kaplan, and this is Womanica.
0:06.5	For the past six years, we've been telling the stories of women you may or may not know
0:11.6	about but definitely should. This month, we're bringing back our favorite Womanica episodes
0:16.6	from across the back catalog. These are women across centuries and around the world who made their mark.
0:24.0	With that, here's one of our favorite episodes.
0:31.5	Hello, from Wonder Media Network, I'm Jenny Kaplan, and this is Womanica.
0:36.8	This Pride Month, we're talking about
0:38.2	wordsmiths. Women who use language to create community, give a voice to change and inspire future
0:43.2	generations to do the same. There was once a club in Tokyo called Ginpari. Until the late
0:52.0	80s, it was the only one of its kind. At Ginpari, singers and songwriters would
0:58.1	step onto the stage and serenade the audience with French-style chansons. It was where
1:04.5	today's womanican found her voice and met other queer performers who would become part of her
1:09.2	community. Let's talk about Todawa Masako.
1:17.3	Masako was born in 1931 in Tokyo, Japan.
1:21.4	Her father and older brother died when she was only a child, leaving her alone with her mother.
1:27.2	Coming from a small family of two,
1:29.3	Masako made the decision to leave high school
1:31.2	and work as an English typist for an import-export business.
1:35.1	But when she wasn't in the office,
1:36.8	she was spending time at Ginpari.
1:39.7	The cafe was a cultural hub for artistic people
1:42.4	from all over Japan.
	...

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