Takamure Itsue - Takamure Itsue

A researcher of women's history. After being active in writing and the women's liberation movement, she devoted the latter half of her life as an independent researcher to the study of Japanese marriage history and women's history, and pointed out blind spots and weaknesses in orthodox history and in the marriage history of Yanagita Kunio. She was born in Kumamoto Prefecture on January 18, 1894. She dropped out of the Prefectural Kumamoto Normal School and the Private Kumamoto Girls' School, and after working as a female factory worker and a substitute teacher, she serialized her account of her difficult five-month Shikoku Pilgrimage in the Kyushu Nichi Nichi Shimbun, where she was recognized for her sensitive literary talent. She married Hashimoto Kenzo (1897-1976), a substitute teacher at another school whom she met while working as a substitute teacher (1919), and desperately pursued the ideal of comradeship and unity between men and women throughout her life. After her poetry submitted to a newspaper was recognized, she moved to Tokyo, where she was a talented poet, novelist, and critic, and was active in the women's liberation movement led by Hiratsuka Raicho. However, she was not satisfied with the movement and began to study women's history. From 1931 (Showa 6), she left all mundane matters to her husband and stayed in her study, never going out. She comprehensively collected historical materials on ancient and medieval history, including a huge number of ancient genealogies, and through meticulous interpretations, she wrote her major works, "Study of Matrilineal System" (1938) and "Study of Invitation Marriage" (1953). These works shed light on the existence of matrilineal system in Japan and the reality of wife-visiting and invitation-marriage, but were ignored by the established academic world and by Kunio Yanagita and others. However, despite the difficulties in its theoretical construction, its results are worthy of further examination and evaluation in the future, and "The History of Women" (4 volumes, 1954-1958) was the first painstaking work to systematize the history of Japanese women away from ideology. She passed away on June 7, 1964. After her death, her autobiography "The Diary of a Woman in the Land of Fire" (1965) was published.

[Jiro Suzuki]

"The Complete Works of Takamune Itsue, 10 volumes (1965-1967, Rironsha)" ▽ "A Daughter's Pilgrimage, by Takamune Itsue (Iwanami Bunko)" ▽ "Takamune Itsue and Beauvoir, by Takara Rumiko (1976, Aki Shobo)" ▽ "Takamune Itsue, by Kano Masanao and Horiba Kiyoko (1977, Asahi Shimbun)" ▽ "Takamune Itsue and Yanagita Kunio, by Murakami Nobuhiko (1977, Yamato Shobo)"

Source: Shogakukan Encyclopedia Nipponica About Encyclopedia Nipponica Information | Legend

女性史研究家。文筆と婦人解放運動に活躍後、後半生は在野の研究者として日本の婚姻史・女性史の研究に没入し、正統派の歴史学および柳田国男(やなぎたくにお)の婚姻史における盲点ないし弱点を鋭くついた。明治27年1月18日熊本県に生まれる。県立熊本師範学校と私立熊本女学校を中途退学、女工と代用教員の生活を経てから、5か月にわたる苦難の四国遍路の巡礼記を『九州日日新聞』に連載して、多感な文才を認められた。代用教員時代に出会った他校の代用教員橋本憲三（1897―1976）と結婚（1919）、男女の同志的一本化という理想を一生涯必死に追求した。新聞投稿の詩が認められて上京、詩・小説・評論に才筆を振るい、平塚らいてうらの婦人解放運動に加わって活躍したが、運動に飽き足らないで女性史の研究を始めた。1931年（昭和6）以降、いっさいの俗事を夫に任せて外出もしないで、書斎に閉じこもった。膨大な古い系譜をはじめとして、古代史・中世史の史・資料を網羅的に集め、その克明な解読を通して、主著『母系制の研究』（1938）、『招婿(しょうせい)婚の研究』（1953）を著した。これによって、日本における母系制の存在と妻問い・招婿婚の実態が明らかにされたが、既成の学界や柳田国男らからは無視された。しかし、理論構成上の難点にもかかわらず、その成果は今後のいっそうの検討・評価に値するものであり、『女性の歴史』全4巻（1954～1958）は日本女性史をイデオロギーから離れて最初に体系化した労作である。昭和39年6月7日没。没後、自伝『火の国の女の日記』（1965）が刊行された。

［鈴木二郎］

『『高群逸枝全集』全10巻（1965～1967・理論社）』▽『高群逸枝著『娘巡礼記』（岩波文庫）』▽『高良留美子著『高群逸枝とボーヴォワール』（1976・亜紀書房）』▽『鹿野政直・堀場清子著『高群逸枝』（1977・朝日新聞社）』▽『村上信彦著『高群逸枝と柳田国男』（1977・大和書房）』

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