Modern Girls and Outrage in the Taisho Era - Japan Times. 3 Oldest Kuhara daughters featured

Modern Girls and Outrage

Japan Times 

The Taisho Era (1912-1926) saw young habitues of Japan’s cafe society challenging and outraging their parents as they danced, smooched and smoked cigarettes, aping their idols of the silver screen. Emblematic of the age was the moga(modan gaaru, or modern girl) with her Western shoes, dresses, makeup and jewelery, and her stylish hair done in a marcel wave.

The moga was escorted by her mobo (modan boi, or modern boy), dapper in the latest Western fashion, but it is the women — then, as now, of endless fascination for the artist — who are mostly portrayed in the exhibition “Taisho Chic” at the Teien Museum.

At that time, Japan had already proven itself adept at mastering Western technology and, in addition to flexing its military muscles, was beginning to look at some of the fun spawned by the Jazz Age in America and Europe. Democracy, socialism and the beginnings of sexual equality were emerging forces, and with basic, nationwide literacy, all classes could participate in a lively intellectual climate where entrenched beliefs and values were being questioned in the light of imported Western ideas.

Taisho modernism was essentially an urban culture. There was a huge social gap between the affluent and the rest of society, and pictures of rural scenes suggest Arcadian resorts that were tamed for the visits of city sophisticates, such as Hayama and Karuizawa. Women took up outdoor activities and were seen on the summer beaches in form-fitting swimsuits with arms and legs exposed — a far cry from the dental-floss creations of today, but provocative for the time nevertheless. For the first time a carefully managed suntan denoted outdoor games rather than the rustic servitude that was the lot of most country folk.

A more mature self-confidence can be seen on the faces of the three eldest daughters of the industrialist Kuhara Fusanosuke (1869-1965), portrayed with a luxurious car resembling the 1930s Chrysler “Royal Sedan,” in a screen painting by Yamakawa Shuho. The girls are in fashionable kimono, their hairstyles are perfect, and their tabi socks immaculate. One stands with her hand resting on the hood in a gesture of casual possession, while clutching the strap of a leather-cased 35-mm camera — probably the latest, expensive Leica.

Their gaze is cool and almost expressionless, revealing just the slightest curiosity at the scene, but secure in the knowledge that it will be kept at a safe distance. The background is uncluttered by scenery or context, as if it had been made in a studio, and, by depicting just the well-brought-up girls and their splendid car, Shuho’s painting emphasizes exclusive wealth and privilege.

From the top of the social tree, these young ladies could afford to handle Western accouterments and ideas on their own terms. For many of the wage-earning classes, any foreign import presented fuel for conflict with conservative and xenophobic parents or peers.

Moga, and the denizens of the cafe society generally, had to defend themselves against frequent charges of not being “properly Japanese,” and were held for comparison against the idealized, kimono-wearing, subservient housewife who stood for all that was proper in family life. Popular magazines came out with arguments on all sides, and even the government — with military values in mind — began to eulogize the new, healthy-looking young woman who could swim and play tennis. The traditional woman was therefore gradually remodeled, and the “compound bijin” (beauty) appeared, who was just as comfortable in traditional kimono as in the latest Western fashions.