Noe Itō
was an anarcha-feminist and social critic was born on the 21nd of January, 1895 in Kyushu, Japan.
Itō joined the Seitosha (Blue Stocking Society) group in 1913, where she went on to become one of the lead editors of the feminist magazine Seitō in 1915 to 1916. In Itō’s writing, she opened discussion on issues that had gone relatively untouched within such magazines, such as abortion, prostitution, and free love.
In addition to her writing for
Seitō,
Itō wrote over 80 articles for various other publications, wrote several novels (such as Zatsuon and Tenki) on breaking tradition in her adolescence, and translated the works of Emma Goldman into Japanese.
In collaboration with
Sakae Ōsugi, Wada Kyutaro, and Kondo Kenji, Itō helped to create the first Labor Movement magazine in Japan in 1919 – Rōdō undō, seeking to provide information on anarchism to the industrial working class. In 1921, Itō acted as an advisor alongside socialist activist Yamakawa Kikue for the Sekirankai (Red Wave Society) – the first women’s socialist group in Japan.
For a time, Itō was married to the author Jun Tsuji – an egoist/individualist anarchist. She also developed a relationship with Sakae
Ōsugi, an anarchist translator with a rather extensive history of being imprisoned for direct political action – including punishment for being associated with the socialist-anarchist plot to assassinate Emperor Meiji, historically referred to as the “High Treason Incident”.
In 1923, following the Great Kantō earthquake, Noe Itō was captured during a police raid on anarchists and social militants along with
Ōsugi and his nephew. They were beaten and murdered via strangulation by the Kempei-tai secret police in their cells. The killing of Itō and Ōsugi sparked shock and anger throughout Japan, and is now referred to as the Amakasu Incident.
When asked if she was afraid that the authorities might come for her because of her outspoken support of anarchism by Dora Russell as recounted in Bertrand Russell’s autobiography, Itō had drawn her hand across her throat and responded “I know they will sooner or later.”
Information taken from Libcom.org’s pages for Itō and Ōsugi.
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