Hase-Hime Monogatori and the Japanese Model Woman

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Recommended: Sexism in the Japanese language

Hase-Hime Monogatori and the Japanese “Model Woman”

“The Story of Princess Hase” is a folktale from Old Japan that recounts the early life of a Japanese girl, named Hase, born to the Fujiwara nobility. When the girl reaches the age of five her mother dies and soon after her father Prince Toyonari remarries. His new wife, Princess Terute, is so cruel towards her stepdaughter that she attempts to murder her twice: she personally tries to poison the girl and also commands that Hase-Hime1 be taken into the mountains where she is to be killed. The servant responsible pretends to obey his Mistress but in fact stays with his wife in the mountains taking care of Hase-Hime. Prince Toyonari searches for his daughter to no avail although they are eventually reunited during a hunting expedition. The evil stepmother, upon hearing this, flees and the Fujiwara family lives happily ever after.

Through an appealing narrative centering on Hase-Hime’s early life, one is exposed to a multitude of socio-cultural aspects pertaining to female model behavior as perceived in the culture of old Japan. Hase-Hime’s rearing to be obedient, diligent, and patient, along with her artistic preoccupations catalogue the fundamentals of feminine decorum, an ideal Japanese women were trained to aspire to. This essay not only investigates the traditional Japanese feminine ethos but also resolves the oxymoron which arises from the possible authority such a woman could bear, and provides information for the origins of the influences formulating the image of a Japanese “model woman.”

Women in Japan have often been presented in Western media as very feminine, demure and quite subservient. This recurrent theme is also encountered in “The Story ...

... middle of paper ...

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Manchester University Press, 1990.

Jones, Dr. Kimberly. Personal interview. 29 Oct. 2001.

Oshida, Catherine. “Voices In Amber: Women in Japanese Folklore” Online posting.

The University of Alabama's Academic Computer, Ed. U. of Alabama: Presented at Southern Japan Seminar, 1999. 1 Sept. 2001

Ozaki, Yei Theodora. “The Story of Hase-Hime.” Japanese Fairy Tales. New York: A. L. Burt

Company Publishers, c.1903. 71-84.

Renshaw, Jean R.. Kimono in the Boardroom. New York: Oxford University Press, 1999.

Robins-Mowry, Dorothy. The Hidden Sun: Women of Modern Japan. Colorado: Westview

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