was a Japanese

Japanese people

The are an ethnic group originating in the Japanese archipelago and are the predominant ethnic group of Japan. Worldwide, approximately 130 million people are of Japanese descent; of these, approximately 127 million are residents of Japan. People of Japanese ancestry who live in other countries...

 author

Author

An author is broadly defined as "the person who originates or gives existence to anything" and that authorship determines responsibility for what is created. Narrowly defined, an author is the originator of any written work.-Legal significance:...

, educator and feminist of the Meiji period

Meiji period

The , also known as the Meiji era, is a Japanese era which extended from September 1868 through July 1912. This period represents the first half of the Empire of Japan.- Meiji Restoration and the emperor :...

 Japan

Japan

Japan is an island nation in East Asia. Located in the Pacific Ocean, it lies to the east of the Sea of Japan, China, North Korea, South Korea and Russia, stretching from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north to the East China Sea and Taiwan in the south...

.

Biography

Fukuda Hideko (known as Kageyama Hideko before she married) was a prominent figure, often referred to as "Japan's Joan of Arc

Joan of Arc

Saint Joan of Arc, nicknamed "The Maid of Orléans" , is a national heroine of France and a Roman Catholic saint. A peasant girl born in eastern France who claimed divine guidance, she led the French army to several important victories during the Hundred Years' War, which paved the way for the...

", in the Freedom and People's Rights Movement

Freedom and People's Rights Movement

The was a Japanese political and social movement for democracy in 1880s....

 in Japan during the 1880s. Fukuda Hideko began her active involvement in the Movement after hearing speeches given in 1882 by Kishida Toshiko

Kishida Toshiko

, afterwards , was one of the first Japanese feminists. She wrote under the name .-Biography:Kishida Toshiko was born in Kyoto Prefecture, Japan, in 1863. Kishida grew up during the Meiji-Taishō period, which lasted from 1868 through 1926. During this period Japanese leaders opened themselves up...

, a popular orator dedicated to the rights of people, particularly women.

In 1885, Fukuda Hideko and Oi Kentaro, amongst other Liberal reformers, began advocating a plot to “sail to Korea

Korea

Korea ) is an East Asian geographic region that is currently divided into two separate sovereign states — North Korea and South Korea. Located on the Korean Peninsula, Korea is bordered by the People's Republic of China to the northwest, Russia to the northeast, and is separated from Japan to the...

 and create a disturbance large enough to undo the Sino-Japanese accord, Convention of Tientsin

Convention of Tientsin

The was an agreement signed between the Meiji period Empire of Japan and Qing Dynasty Empire of China in Tientsin, China on 18 April 1885. It was also called the "Li-Itō Convention"....

, concluded by Ito Hirobumi

Ito Hirobumi

Prince was a samurai of Chōshū domain, Japanese statesman, four time Prime Minister of Japan , genrō and Resident-General of Korea. Itō was assassinated by An Jung-geun, a Korean nationalist who was against the annexation of Korea by the Japanese Empire...

 and Li Hung-chang in 1885”; this later became known as the Osaka Incident of 1885. Fukuda Hideko, having joined the political society aspect of the People’s Rights Movement wrote in her autobiography entitled , of her reasons to join the plot for a reformist movement in Korea:
For these reasons, the Liberals began to respond to Japan’s “refusal to help Korea” by hoping to reinstall the Independence party. The old members of the dissolved Liberal party

Liberal Party of Japan (1881)

The is the name of several liberal political parties in the history of Japan, two of which existed in the Empire of Japan prior to 1945.-Liberal Party of 1881:...

 proclaimed that Korea had been an independent since the establishment of the Yi Dynasty, and that no other countries could interfere with its rights and “principle of freedom.” Speeches were given in which Fukuda Hideko stated she was “welcomed with open arms” as people greatly respected her and what she was trying to accomplish. They began trying to raise money, which was difficult as Japan was facing a period of depression, and several members resorted to stealing. Isoyama Seibei was angry at the inability to raise funds and was discouraged with what funds they did have. His negative attitude resulted in him being removed as commander of the plot and being replaced by Arai Shogo, leading to further problems as Inagaki Ryunosuke refused to listen to him. However, they succeeded in raising money and gathering weaponry, including guns and bombs. The party then traveled to Nagasaki

Nagasaki

is the capital and the largest city of Nagasaki Prefecture on the island of Kyushu in Japan. Nagasaki was founded by the Portuguese in the second half of the 16th century on the site of a small fishing village, formerly part of Nishisonogi District...

 on November 20, 1885, from where they planned to depart for Korea. However, the police had already been investigating the large number of robberies in the Osaka area, and before the party could travel to Seoul

Seoul

Seoul , officially the Seoul Special City, is the capital and largest metropolis of South Korea. A megacity with a population of over 10 million, it is the largest city proper in the OECD developed world...

, on November 23, 1885, the roughly 130 members were arrested and charged with the illegal possession of guns and bombs, encouraging riots, and some with robbery.

The reformist movement had been intercepted before they had reached Korea, and reflected the disorganization of the group and the ending of the Political party movement within Japan. The incident also coincided with the signing of several treaties between Japan and Korea that began a period of stalemated aggression—the worst time for the Osaka Incident to have been planned. Fukuda Hideko was an integral part of the Freedom and Popular Rights movement, not only in the political movement, but also in the Women’s movement of this time.

Fukuda Hideko spent roughly 10 months in prison as a state criminal. In subsequent decades, she became involved in the socialist movement and published her own journal.

One hundred years after her birth in 1965, a group of activists erected a memorial in her honor in Okayama. The memorial includes a quotation from her autobiography:
“My life has been one adversity upon another. But I always fought back. Not once, not even once, did I flinch from adversity.”

Further reading

• Berenice, Caroll. “The Outsiders: Comments on Fukuda Hideko, Catherine Marshall and Dorothy Detzer.” Peace and Change 4 (Fall 1977): 23-26.
• Conroy, H. The Japanese Seizure of Korea, 1868-1910: a study of realism and idealism in international relations. Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 1960.
• Fukuda, Hideko. Warawa No Hanseigai. Tokyo: Iwanami Bunko, 1985.
• Hane, Misiko. Reflections on the Way to the Gallows: Rebel Women in Prewar Japan. Berkley: University of California Press, 1988.
• Horimoto, Fumiko. “Pioneers of the Women’s Movement in Japan: Hiratsuka Raicho and Fukuda Hideko Seen Through Their Journals, Seito and Sekhai Fujn.” Ph.D. diss, University of Toronto, 1999.
• Hunter, Janet. Concise Dictionary of Modern Japanese History. Berkeley: University of California Press, 1984.
• Hunter, Janet. The emergence of modern Japan: an introductory history since 1853. London; New York: Longman, 1989.
• Jansen, Marius B.
  Marius Jansen
  Marius Berthus Jansen was an American academic, historian, and Emeritus Professor of Japanese History at Princeton University....
  
   "Oi Kentaro: Radicalism and Chauvinism," Far Eastern Quarterly, vol. 11 (May 1952): 305-316.
• Keene, Donald
  Donald Keene
  Donald Lawrence Keene is a Japanologist, scholar, teacher, writer, translator and interpreter of Japanese literature and culture. Keene was University Professor Emeritus and Shincho Professor Emeritus of Japanese Literature at Columbia University, where he taught for over fifty years...
  
  . (2002). Emperor of Japan: Meiji and His World, 1852-1912. New York: Columbia University Press
  Columbia University Press
  Columbia University Press is a university press based in New York City, and affiliated with Columbia University. It is currently directed by James D. Jordan and publishes titles in the humanities and sciences, including the fields of literary and cultural studies, history, social work, sociology,...
  
  . 10-ISBN 0-231-12340-X; 13-ISBN 978-0-231-12340-2; OCLC 46731178
• Murata Shizuko and Ōki Motoko, eds. Fukuda Hideko shū. Fuji shuppan, 1998.
• Ōki Motoko. Jiyū minken undō to josei. Domesu shuppan, 2003.
• Sievers, Sharon L. Flowers in Salt: The Beginnings of Feminist Consciousness in Modern Japan. California: Stanford University Press, 1983.
• Tsuzuki, Chushichi. The Pursuit of Power in Modern Japan, 1825-1995. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2000.
• Ushioda, Sharlie. “Women and War in Meiji Japan: The Case of Fukuda Hideko (1865-1927).” Peace and Change 4 (Fall 1977): 9-12.