Born in Tokyo in 1886, the second daughter of a high ranking civil servant, and educated at Japan Women's University (日本女子大学) in 1903,[1] Hiratsuka came to be influenced by contemporary currents of European philosophy, as well as Zen Buddhism, of which she would become a devoted practitioner.

Of particular influence to her was turn-of-the-century Swedish feminist writer Ellen Key, some of whose works she translated into Japanese, and the individualistic heroine of Henrik Ibsen's A Doll's House (1879).

[2] In 1908 she attempted a double-suicide with Morita Sōhei, her teacher – a married writer – and a disciple of novelist Natsume Soseki, in the mountains of Nasushiobara, Tochigi.

[3][4] Upon graduation from university, Hiratsuka entered the Narumi Women's English School where, in 1911, she founded Japan's first all-women literary magazine, Seitō (青鞜, literally Bluestocking).

[6] Exaggerated stories of their love affairs and nonconformism, once again spread by Japan's mainstream press, turned public opinion against the magazine and prompted Raichō to publish several fierce defenses of her ideals.

[8] From 1918 to 1919, Yosano Akiko started to claim the importance of women's financial independence in the context of the rapid development of capitalism in Japan after the end of World War I.

[10][11] Afterwards, Yamakawa Kikue and Yamada Waka participated in this debate, and it became a big social movement known as the Maternity Protection Controversy (母性保護論争, Bosei-hogo ronso).