Sekirankai

Prominent feminists Yamakawa Kikue and Noe Itō were advisers for the group, which participated in that year's May Day activities, published the magazine Omedetashi, held seminars and lectures, and distributed anti-war leaflets to the army.

The Sekirankai was formed at time in Imperial Japan when socialist thought gained enough momentum to be expressed publicly.

The Sekirankai was founded in April 1921 from an anarchist group established by Sakai Magara, Kutsumi Fusako, Hashiura Haruno, and Akizuki Shizue.

It is a society that, for the sake of its greedy profiteers, crushes and sacrifices our youth, health, talents, all chance for happiness, even our lives, and feels no compassion.

Sisters who love justice and morality, join the socialist movement!About 20 women members of the Sekirankai marched during the May Day activities.

[5] Sensational accounts of the event from journalists resulted in government restrictions on the organization's movements but the women's activities were placed into the national spotlight.

Yamakawa Kikue, Itō Noe, Kutsumi Fusako, Fujimori Seikichi, Sakai Magara, Eguchi Kan, and Ishikawa Sanshirō were lecturers at the meeting.

At the time, the restrictive Public Order and Police Law of 1900 (治安警察法 Chian Keisatsu Hō) prohibited worker strikes and labor organizations in a crack down on speech and assembly.

Throughout newspapers, feminist and socialist societies were vilified as degenerates and were the object of derision for numerous cartoonists such as Okamoto Ippei and Kitazawa Rakute.

[9] The group approached feminism through a Marxist lens, exploring the problems that women faced as issues of class and commodification.

Much of the group's ideological tenets found root in the writings of Yamakawa Kikue, a Japanese feminist and socialist writer who was also a prominent member of the Sekirankai.