Ito Noe

Japanese anarchist feminist who challenged imperial patriarchy in Taishō Era

Ito Noe (1895-1923) revolutionized Japanese feminism through her editorship of Seitō magazine and radical writings. Breaking from the Good Wife, Wise Mother doctrine, she advocated:

• Complete sexual liberation
• Anarcho-feminist labor organization
• Opposition to the Peace Preservation Law

Her 1919 essay The Problems of Women critiqued capitalist patriarchy's 'double enslavement' of working-class women. Collaborating with anarchist Osugi Sakae, Ito organized the Red Wave Society promoting free unions and birth control access.

During the 1921 Yūaikai strikes, she mobilized female textile workers through underground newsletters. Imperial authorities arrested Ito in 1923's Kameido Incident, murdering her during the Great Kantō Earthquake chaos. Her Prison Memoirs, smuggled out in 1922, became a feminist manifesto challenging state violence and gender norms.