Yamakawa Kikue

Yamakawa Kikue
photographed in 1920
Native name	山川菊栄
Born	(1890-11-03)3 November 1890  Japan, Tokyo
Died	2 November 1980(1980-11-02) (aged 89)  Japan, Tokyo
Notable work	Women of the Mito domain : recollections of samurai family life
Partner	Yamakawa Hitoshi

Yamakawa Kikue (山川菊栄^?) (1890 in Tokyo, Japan – 1980) was a Japanese activist, writer, socialist, and feminist. She is perhaps best known for being one of the founding members of the socialist group Sekirankai (Red Wave Society).

Yamakawa Kikue was born Aoyama Kikue to a hereditary samurai family in Tokyo in 1890. Her family's relatively privileged background allowed her to attend the private women's college Joshi Eigaku Juku (renamed Tsuda Juku Daigaku in 1948) in Kodaira, Tokyo. During this time, she met fellow Japanese feminists Kamichika Ichiko and Hiratsuka Raicho, editor of the feminist periodical Seitō. Her relationship with Hiratsuka Raicho was particularly important because it led to her contributing several articles to Seitō and ultimately being a part of the Seitōsha (or “bluestockings”) feminist movement.

Yamakawa Kikue had mixed feelings about her education. On one hand, she described her teachers Tsuda Umeko and Kawai Michi as “pure idealists. They were naïve and innocent, totally cut off from the real world. They were completely unaware of what the students were thinking about and what they were searching for.” On the other hand, she respected Tsuda Umeko as a pioneer in the education of Japanese women because of her rejection of the “slave morality” and “spineless submissiveness” taught at other Japanese women's colleges. Yamakawa graduated from Joshi Eigaku Juku after four years of attendance.

In 1916, Yamakawa Kikue married outspoken socialist Yamakawa Hitoshi. During the early years of her marriage, she spent most of her time writing socialist and feminist works, as well as translating existing pieces. She contracted tuberculosis shortly after her marriage and took a short break from her work to recover.