Writing girls through girls’ magazines: (En)gendering childhood, 1895–1912

Throughout Japanese literary history, though the sh?jo genre (a for girls) was often marginalized, it evolved and renewed at every stage in development of print media, blending with another or several different genres. This article examines how circulation girls’ magazines such as Sh?jokai ( Girls’ Sphere ) shaped reading communities to accompany sense national belonging that arose tandem reinforcement gender ideologies. An analysis Sho?jokai will show how, why by whom images desirable female ‘little citizens’ were constructed, fractured expressed through media. As first magazine, delineated writing girls opened up a new arena which subscribers their ideas opinions without constrains while understanding value being good citizens’. Thus, created tensions between universal principles love consciousness, illuminating ways discourse modern girlhood alternately negated affirmed association fluid