Modernization and dangerous women in Japan.

EDO JAPAN, FEMME FATALES, AND MYTH Group-fantasies of femme fatales are common in Japanese history. The image of an endangered male encountering, or fleeing from, or in the clasp of a dangerous woman is prominent even in Japanese mythology. Before examining mythic motifs, however, we turn to the social environment in which the myths were created as a means of deciphering their meaning. Edo/Tokugawa Japan (1603-1868) was a social world founded on male supremacy and pederasty (2). Gynophobia, male fear of females, was encoded in social mores, as menstruating females were considered kegarawashi (filthy, disgusting, unclean), (3) and social avoidance, except for impregnation, was lauded. Females were described as "borrowed" wombs, (4) socially subordinate, and the property of males. Through arranged marriage, they moved from one i.e., the family of their birth, to another i.e., the family of their marriage. Boys and youths were the preferred sexual partners. Literature heralding pederasty (shudo) was a favorite among the samurai, the clergy, artisans, and merchants. (5). The misogynistic core of Edo culture is exemplified by the publication Onna Daigaku (Greater Learning for Women), which identified the "five defects" of women—"disobedience, anger, slander, jealousy, and ignorance." Such defects "infected seven to eight women of every ten" and accounted for their inferiority to men. (6)