Okumura Ioko

Okumura Ioko
奥村五百子
Born(1845-06-07)7 June 1845
Saga Prefecture, Japan
Died7 February 1907(1907-02-07) (aged 61)
Known forFounding Aikoku Fujinkai (Patriotic Women's Association)
MovementSonnō jōi
AwardsOrder of the Precious Crown, Sixth Class

Okumura Ioko (Japanese: 奥村五百子, 7 June 1845 – 7 February 1907) was a Japanese activist during the Meiji period. She founded the Aikoku Fujinkai (Patriotic Women's Association) in 1901.

Biography

Okumura was born on 7 June 1845 in Saga Prefecture, Japan, to an elite family.[1][2] Okumura married, but lost her first husband, and remarried to a masterless samurai who was formerly under the Mito Clan. They later divorced.[1][3]

With her father and brother, Okumura was a loyalist to the Imperial Court[3] and joined the Sonnō jōi movement ("revere the Emperor, expel the barbarians").[1] Okumura moved to Korea, where she opened an industrial school in Kwangju.[1] Alongside her brother, Okumura Ensin[3][4] Okumura aimed to revive the legacy of their ancestor, Okumura Jōshin,[5] one of the earliest Buddhist missionaries in Korea.[6] She was a supporter of Meiji continental expansion in Asia.[7]

After the Boxer Rebellion broke out in China in 1899, Okumura served as a member of the imperial comfort delegation to Beijing and Tianjin in 1900.[8] She saw exhausted soldiers cleaning their bowls in a river and was motivated to found an organisation to support the serving men.[9][10] Okumura returned to Japan and founded the Aikoku Fujinkai (Patriotic Women's Association) in 1901,[11][12][13] in Tokyo,[4][14] which organised relief projects to support soldiers and war-bereaved families.[1] The association operated under the Ministry of Internal Affairs,[15][16] was supported by politician Konoe Atsumaro,[17] and initially was ran by the wives and daughters of the nobility.[4][18]

During Russo-Japanese War (1904–1905), Okumura's association was active in caring for troops. In 1905, Empress Shōken honoured the association by her attendance at a meeting, and Princess Kan-in [ja] was the honorary president of the organisation.[12] By 1919, the association had a million members[19] and branches in villages and towns across the Empire.[7]

Okumura was praised as a "heroine" and "mother of patriotism'" in Japan.[20]

Awards

Death and legacy

Okumura died in 1907.[1]

Okumura was portrayed in Shirō Toyoda's film Okumura Ioko (奥村五百子, 1940).[21]

Okumura is also commemorated by a bronze statue in Karatsu, Saga Prefecture, Japan.[22] A statue of her was formerly at Gwangju Park Square in South Korea.[20]

References

  1. ^ a b c d e f "OKUMURA Ioko". Portraits of Modern Japanese Historical Figures, National Diet Library, Japan. Retrieved 2025-10-18.
  2. ^ The Decade of the Great War: Japan and the Wider World in the 1910s. BRILL. 2014-05-15. p. 287. ISBN 978-90-04-27427-3.
  3. ^ a b c Rethinking the Russo-Japanese War, 1904-5: Volume 2: The Nichinan Papers. Global Oriental. 2007-12-13. p. 251. ISBN 978-90-04-21332-6.
  4. ^ a b c Yuk, Suhwa (2015). "The Education Movement of the royal family of the Empire of Great Han and Myeongshin Girls' School" (PDF). Asian Women. 31 (1). Yongsan-gu, Seoul: Sookmyung Women's University: 66. doi:10.14431/aw.2015.03.31.1.51. Retrieved 2025-10-18.
  5. ^ Victoria, Brian (2012). "Is It Possible for an Entire Sangha to be ‘Defeated’in the Holy Life?" Journal of the Oxford Centre for Buddhist Studies (OCBS) 19. Oxford. pp. 103-124. Retrieved 2025-10-18.
  6. ^ Uchida, Jun (2020-03-17). Brokers of Empire: Japanese Settler Colonialism in Korea, 1876–1945. BRILL. pp. 56–57. ISBN 978-1-68417-510-9.
  7. ^ a b Totman, Conrad (2014-09-11). A History of Japan. John Wiley & Sons. p. 351. ISBN 978-1-119-02233-6.
  8. ^ Yeh, Emilie Yueh-yu (2018-02-14). Early Film Culture in Hong Kong, Taiwan, and Republican China: Kaleidoscopic Histories. University of Michigan Press. p. 105. ISBN 978-0-472-05372-8.
  9. ^ Hastings, Sally A. (1985). From Heroine to Patriotic Volunteer: Women and Social Work in Japan, 1900-1945. Office of WID, Michigan State University. p. 309.
  10. ^ Grimshaw, P.; Holmes, K.; Lake, M. (2001-03-20). Women's Rights and Human Rights: International Historical Perspectives. Springer. p. 23. ISBN 978-0-333-97764-4.
  11. ^ Mackie, Vera (2003-02-26). Feminism in Modern Japan: Citizenship, Embodiment and Sexuality. Cambridge University Press. p. 243. ISBN 978-0-521-52719-4.
  12. ^ a b Bernstein, Gail Lee (1991-07-09). Recreating Japanese Women, 1600-1945. University of California Press. pp. 160–161. ISBN 978-0-520-91018-8.
  13. ^ Raftery, Deirdre; Spencer, Stephanie (2024-10-26). Intersectionality, Transnationalism, and the History of Education: Networks, Time, and Place. Springer Nature. p. 81. ISBN 978-3-031-70630-1.
  14. ^ Wu, Peichen (2023-01-12). The Japanese Women's Journals in Colonial Taiwan : Taiwan Patriotic Women and Taiwan Women's World. Taylor & Francis. doi:10.4324/9781003279990-3. Archived from the original on 2025-05-03. Retrieved 2025-10-18.
  15. ^ Frühstück, Sabine (2007-08-14). Uneasy Warriors: Gender, Memory, and Popular Culture in the Japanese Army. University of California Press. p. 193. ISBN 978-0-520-24795-6.
  16. ^ McVeigh, Brian J. (2018-06-28). The History of Japanese Psychology: Global Perspectives, 1875-1950. Bloomsbury Academic. p. 187. ISBN 978-1-350-07438-5.
  17. ^ Louis-Frédéric (2002). Japan Encyclopedia. Harvard University Press. p. 12. ISBN 978-0-674-01753-5.
  18. ^ Inoue, Miyako (2006-04-05). Vicarious Language: Gender and Linguistic Modernity in Japan. University of California Press. p. 153. ISBN 978-0-520-24584-6.
  19. ^ Boyd, James (2010-12-17). Japanese-Mongolian Relations, 1873-1945: Faith, Race and Strategy. Global Oriental. p. 60. ISBN 978-90-04-21280-0.
  20. ^ a b 오성숙 (2010). "일본 여성과 내셔널리즘" [Japanese Women and Nationalism]. 한국외국어대학교 Hankuk University of Foreign Studies (in Korean). Retrieved 2025-10-18.
  21. ^ Anderson, Joseph L.; Richie, Donald (2018-06-05). The Japanese Film: Art and Industry - Expanded Edition. Princeton University Press. p. 137. ISBN 978-0-691-18746-4.
  22. ^ "奥村五百子の像". TripAdvisor (in Japanese). Retrieved 2025-10-18.
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