Modern Girls, Shining Stars, the Skies of Tokyo

5 Japanese Women

Author: Phyllis Birnbaum
ISBN: 9780231113564

The stunning biographical portraits in Modern Girls, Shining Stars, the Skies of Tokyo, some adapted from essays that first appeared in The New Yorker, explore the lives of five women who did their best to stand up and cause more trouble than was considered proper in Japanese society. Their lives stretch across a century and a half of explosive cultural and political transformations in Japan. These five artists-two actresses, two writers, and a painter-were noted for their talents, their beauty, and their love affairs rather than for any association with politics. But through the fearlessness of their art and their private lives, they influenced the attitudes of their times and challenged the status quo.Phyllis Birnbaum presents her subjects from various perspectives, allowing them to shine forth in all of their contradictory brilliance: generous and petulant, daring and timid, prudent and foolish. There is Matsui Sumako, the actress who introduced Ibsen's Nora and Wilde's Salome to Ja

Publisher: Columbia University Press
Publish Date: 1999

Subjects: Biography & Autobiography / General, Biography & Autobiography / Women, History / Asia / Japan, Social Science / Women's Studies

This book is available in the following Community Centers: Women's Center (Location: Asian-American/Asian)