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Paper short abstract

Through archival analysis of Josei Nihonjin (1920–1923), this paper explores the column “Henshūshitsu yori” as a paratextual space where women editors documented intellectual labor and daily practice, claiming legitimacy and collective identity within a male-dominated nationalist publishing culture.

Paper long abstract

This paper investigates autobiographical strategies as instruments of legitimization in the context of women’s magazine production in interwar Japan. It focuses on the column “Henshūshitsu yori” (編集室より, “From the Editorial Room”) in women’s opinion magazines, which functioned as a space for women editors to narrate their publishing process and intellectual work. I argue that these editorial notes constitute a form of editorial performativity, where the process of editing becomes a means of self-legitimation, affirming women’s authority within a field that was still male dominated.

This paper focuses on Josei Nihonjin (1920-1923), a sister publication of Nihon Oyobi Nihonjin (1907-1945), produced under the intellectual group Seikyōsha (1888-1945). Josei Nihonjin constituted an experiment in gendered nationalist discourse, where contributors argued for women’s emancipation as an unavoidable stage for national progress. The editors – led by Sugawara Kyōzō, Yanagi Yaeko, Yoshida Kiyoko, and Chiba Yasurako – documented through “Henshūshitsu yori” not only the daily operations of the editorial room – deadlines, readers’ correspondence, financial struggles – but also their affective experiences of working together as intellectual women. The column also served as a means to connect with readers, offering a glimpse of the authors beyond the articles they penned and the ideologies they championed.

Existing scholarship on Japanese women’s periodicals has focused on content and political significance of these media, but little attention has been dedicated to the paratextual zones where women’s identity was constructed through the editorial process. Building upon theories of authorship and performativity, this study examines these columns as texts where women’s authority was enacted and reaffirmed. Methodologically, the paper is grounded in archival research and discourse analysis, drawing on issues of Josei Nihonjin, and approaches the “editorial room” as a discursive space of self-representation.

Reading “Henshūshitsu yori” columns as autobiographical documentation, this paper reassesses women’s magazine culture as a laboratory for feminist intellectual work and collective authorship in the context of modern Japan.