dokufu poisonous woman

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dokufu 毒婦 "poisonous woman"
akujo 悪女 "bad woman" in our modern vocabulary

近世悪女奇聞 / 綿谷雪
雷お新、高橋お伝、夜嵐お絹など毒婦一七人 The life of seven Dokufu

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"Poison Women" and Early Meiji Writing
The notion of "poison women," or dokufu, was a prevalent topic among common readers during the early Meiji period. While the term itself comes from mid- to late-Edo period dramatic writing particularly the Kabuki theater in this context it refers to a group of women convicted in the first decades of Meiji of vicious crimes ranging from fraud and extortion to murder.
Names such as 夜嵐お絹 Yoarashi O-Kinu, 原田お絹 Harada O-Kinu, 高橋お伝　Takahashi O-Den,
鳥追お松　"Torioi" O-Matsu, and 花井お梅.Hanai O-Ume came to be widely known and associated with women of low birth whose chief characteristics were their unbridled sexuality, violent tempers, and greed.
But the notoriety of the "poison women" was tempered by the fascination in which they were held by the public at large. This fascination was enhanced by a series of sensational stories that appeared in the popular press of the time. These stories were a mixture of factual reportage and fictional embellishment, and most (but not all) portrayed their criminal heroines in a negative light. At the same time, their depiction of the "poison women" as sexually promiscuous enhanced the attraction such women held for their male readershipin particular, making these stories instant bestsellers once they were converted to book form.
This panel will examine several critical aspects of the early Meiji female criminals and the stories told about them. Marie Söderberg discusses aspects of the early Meiji newspaper industry, and provides a general overview of the medium in which these stories were presented. Ulla Frisk examines the historical basis of the "poison women," delineating, where possible, fact from fiction. Eiko Norlander looks at the aesthetic, literary angle of the stories, particularly their structural similarity to Kabuki. Matthew Strecher wraps things up with a discussion of structure and genre, discussing the "poison woman" stories as hybrid fact/fiction, an early form of literary journalism, and an important forerunner to the serialized newspaper novel.

1) "A Comparison of Japanese and Swedish Newspapers at the End of the 19th Century"
2) "Poison Women, Tsuzukimono, and the Development of the Meiji Newspaper Novel"
3) "On the Strolling Shamisen Player Omatsu's Adventures Kabuki Plays and the Novel"
4) "The Female Character in dokufu Novels in the Early Meiji Period"
- - - - - ASIAN STUDIES CONFERENCE JAPAN
- source : meijigakuin.ac.jp 2003

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Hanai O-Ume 花井お梅

source : ukiyoe-gallery.com
Hanai Oume Killing Kamekichi

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On a rainy summer night in 1887 a murder took place in one of Tokyo’s entertainment districts. A geisha known as Hanai Oume stabbed her lover to death. Oume’s open trial—shortly before the courts were opened to the general public for the first time—attracted widespread interest and caused a sensation.
This article focuses on the courtroom as a place of encounter between the law and the public. The public trials of the Meiji period are a good starting-point for describing the implementation of Western law in Japan. It thereby addresses the problem of the globalization of legal cultures in the 19th century, a topic which has been largely ignored in global history.
- Globalization of legal cultures in the 19th century. Criminal trials, gender, and the public in Meiji Japan
- source : Daniel Hedinger -

- reference -

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Harada O-Kinu 原田お絹 / Yoarashi O-Kinu 夜嵐お絹

source : ameblo.jp/naomireturn/entry

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Yoarashi Okinu 夜嵐おきぬ, ca.1845 - March 28, 1872)
is the moniker of Harada Kinu (原田きぬ), who was a Japanese female poisoner and geisha and lived from the end of the Edo era to the beginning of the Meiji era. Her nickname Yoarashi means night-storm in Japanese.
..... As she was beautiful, people in the Edo longed for her. She became a mistress of Ōkubo Tadayori (大久保忠順) in the capital Edo. He was the daimyo of the Karasuyama Domain in Shimotsuke Province, which was rated at thirty thousand koku. Ōkubo had a son, the successor to the Ōkubo family, by her. However, he hated her, and abandoned her in the Meiji Restoration.
She became a mistress of Kobayashi Kinpei .....
- - - More in the WIKIPEDIA !

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O-Miyo no Kata　お美代の方　Senkoin 専行院　
（1797 - 1872)
Concubine (sokushitsu) of 11th Shogun Tokugawa Ienari (1773 - 1841)
a maid-turned-adopted-daughter of a hatamoto

江戸幕府11代将軍徳川家斉の側室
- - - More in the WIKIPEDIA !

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Kagero Ezu - Film

..... To continue enjoying wealth and power even after he passes away, Ienari’s concubine Omiyo no Kata (Nakamura Yuko), who has been in his favour for a long time despite his legal wife Tadako (Shiraishi Kayoko), desires to have her own grandson Maeda Inuchiyo installed as the next shogun. Making use of his right-hand man Mizuno Minonokami (Kinoshita Houka) and others, Omiyo no Kata’s backer Nakano Sekio (Kunimura Jun) wheels and deals for the purpose of making Ienari write the directive that will determine the next shogun. .....
- source : jdramas.wordpress.com -

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Shirakoya O-Kuma 白子屋お熊
(1703 - 1727)

She used to wear Kimono of the striped red and yellow 黄八丈　Kihachijo pattern.
- source : kimono.or.jp -

..... her crime made her the heroine of ningyō jōruri puppet plays.
- - - More in the WIKIPEDIA !

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Takahashi O-Den 高橋お伝

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Takahashi Oden (1848 – January 31, 1879)
was a female Japanese murderer known for killing a man, and being the last woman in Japan to be put to death by beheading.
She was also suspected of poisoning her husband.
The movie Dokufu Oden Takahashi is based on her life. Director Shōgorō Nishimura's Roman porno film Crimson Night Dream (紅夜夢 Koyamu) (1983) also depicts Takahashi.
- source : wikipedia -

The story of her life also became a famous Kabuki play.
At her stone memorial at the graveyard in Yanaka　谷中霊園　Kabuki actors come to pray (they play in the game portraying her life) and others come to get better at playing the Shamisen.

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Torioi O-Matsu 鳥追お松

By Utagawa Kunisada III 歌川国貞三代

Her exact dates are not known, but she lived in Tokyo in the Meiji period. She was famous for her beauty.

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. Yaoya o-Shichi 八百屋お七 . 　
（1668 - 1683)

月岡芳年 Tsukioka Yoshitoshi （八百屋お七）
- - - More in the WIKIPEDIA !

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- - - - - H A I K U and S E N R Y U - - - - -

ひそみ立つ毒婦の墓や花山椒
hisomi tatsu dokufu no haka ya hana sanshoo

the lonely grave
of the poisonous woman -
mountain pepper blossoms
Tr. Gabi Greve

槫沼けい一 Kurenuma Kei-Ichi

. WKD : hana sanshoo 花山椒 flowers of mountain pepper .
- - kigo for late spring - -

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鬼灯や毒婦お伝の泣くような
hoozuki ya dokufu o-den no naku yoo na

these lampion flowers -
as if the poisonous woman O-Den
was crying

仁平勝 Nihira Masaru (1949 - )

. WKD : hoozuki 鬼燈－鬼灯 Chinese lantern plant .
- - kigo for autumn - -

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Wakoku hyakujo 和国百女 One Hundred Women of Japan
Hishikawa Moronobu 菱川師宣
. . . CLICK here for Photos !

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