From the early Tokugawa period onward, the expression, lsquo;The hen does not announce the morning. The crowing of a hen in the morning indicates the subversion of the family' from the Shujing (Book of Documents) was frequently called upon as a warning. At the height of the Tokugawa period,...

The most important text in the ‘Lessons for Women' genre of the Tokugawa era (1600-1867) was the ‘Greater Learning for Women'. But this text remained too vague to be reliable. In the absence of clear norms to which ‘womanly cultivation' could be referred, a need to replace it was strongly...